my higschool life
by thegirlofmanymoods
Summary: Sakura and Tenten join Konoha High which has two gangs: one led by Gaara, the other by Sasuke. They join Gaara's gang, which is where everyone expects them to stay. However soon they go over boundaries and change the school in a way nobody expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Please read this! Hey guys, I just wanted to say that I know that the beginning chapters of this fic aren't well written. In fact they kinda suck, a lot. I wrote these a few years ago, when I was in junior high (okay maybe that was more than a few years ago since I'm graduating this year, man I feel old). But please bear with them. It does get better later on (at least I hope it does). I haven't edited them for two reasons: One, I've edited a lot of my fics and I know that people are probably frustrated with it. Two, I wanted to show my improvement over the years. And, maybe I'm a wee bit lazy. But hey, I've got diplomas and all that this year, so I think that I have a right to be :P. With that being said, I hope everyone enjoys this fic.**

* * *

"Girls, get up!'' Mikoto, their foster mom yelled. Sakura slowly got out of bed.

After she showered, Sakura put on a brown t-shirt with a Hurley logo on it and blue jeans. She brushed her long pink hair, put it in a ponytail, put on a blue baseball cap, and left the bathroom and entered her room.

Then she got out a small journal and put a tick where it read "first day of school".

"This is my fifth first day this year,'' Sakura thought, looking at the journal page. Then she put the journal away and went to the kitchen. Tenten was already there. She was wearing a black t-shirt and navy blue jeans.

"Ready to get suspended?'' Tenten teased.

"No your not,'' Mikoto told them as she got something out of the fridge.

"We were just kidding,'' Sakura assured her.

"I know but seriously girls, don't try to get suspended,'' Mikoto told them.

"Like that will happen,'' Sakura muttered. Tenten laughed softly.

"Well at least don't get suspended within the first week,'' Mikoto pleaded.

"Alright,'' Sakura and Tenten answered in unison.

20 min time skip,

Sakura and Tenten finally reached Konoha High on their skateboards.

"So this is the school we're going to be staying at. For the next few months at least,'' Sakura spoke up, observing the huge school.

It had a big campus; on it were various clumps of people. There was one clump of people which consisted of a redhead with black circles around his eyes, some guy with long black hair and white eyes, a guy with blonde hair, and a guy with his hair in a ponytail. The blonde one was staring at them and Sakura glared at him and he turned away.

Sakura turned and saw another clump of people. There was a guy with spiky back hair, one with greyish blonde hair, one with short black hair, and one with sunglasses. They were being swarmed by girls and let's just say, they weren't exactly pushing the girls away.

The last group of people they saw on their way in was a group of older guys. One had long black hair in a ponytail who looked a lot like the guy in the other group with the spiky hair, one had red hair, one reminded Sakura greatly of a fish, and one had blonde hair in a ponytail.

"Hey,'' a voice said.

Sakura and Tenten looked to see two girls coming toward them, one had blonde hair, the other had navy blue hair.

The blonde haired one said "hi, my name's Temari and the girl beside me is Hinata. You two must be the new girls,''.

"Yep,'' Sakura told her "my name's Sakura and the girl beside me is Tenten,''.

Temari squinted her eyes, studying them. Then she said "no offense, but for sisters, you two don't look very much alike,''.

"Oh we're not related,'' Sakura told her, used to explaining this "our foster mom just gave Tenten my last name because we couldn't find her's,''.

"Oh…, well anyway welcome to Konoha High, we'll show you to the office,'' Temari told them, leading them to the office.

"So,'' Temari started, trying to make conversation "do you think you'll like it here,''.

"As long as they have a basketball team,'' Tenten answered, speaking for the first time since they came here.

"If we'd stay long enough for you to play anyway,'' Sakura said playfully.

"What do you mean?'' Temari asked.

"We get suspended a lot, we sometimes get expelled, and we sometimes move,'' Sakura explained.

"W-why d-do you g-get expelled?'' Hinata asked.

Sakura raised an eyebrow to Temari who explained "she stutters around people she doesn't know very well and she's very shy,''.

Sakura nodded and looked over to Hinata and answered "I have a bit of a temper,''.

"A bit?'' Tenten repeated, laughing.

"Ok, a big temper,'' Sakura admitted.

"Cool,'' Temari told them.

Just then, the secretary looked up and said "hello, I'm Shizune, you must be the new students,''.

"Yes,'' Sakura told her.

"Well here are your schedules and other information,'' Shizune told them, giving them their schedules (Tenten is a year older then Sakura, so they don't have any of the same classes), their locks/ lock combinations and locker locations) they were right beside each other, and a map of the school.

"Thank you,'' Sakura told her, giving Tenten her share of the supplies.

Temari and Hinata helped them to their lockers and they put some of their stuff in, then the bell rang.

"S-sakura y-you have the same f-first t-two classes as m-me,'' Hinata told Sakura.

"Ok, at least I'll know one person there,'' Sakura told her, smiling. She told Tenten and Temari goodbye and Hinata lead her to her first class, math.

"The teacher is a-always l-late,'' Hinata explained as they took a seat in the back.

A few other kids came in. "Move,'' a commanding voice said.

Sakura looked to see the redhead with black circles around his eyes. "No,'' she told him "go find another seat,''.

"No, I always sit here,'' he responded.

"S-sakura let's f-find a d-different seat,'' Hinata told her, but Sakura's temper was catching up.

"Well you can suck it up and find a different seat,'' she told him. By now everyone was watching them.

"Do you know who I am?'' he asked calmly.

"No, and I don't really care,'' Sakura replied.

Surprisingly enough, he smirked and said "no girl ever stood up to me like that before, your ok girl. I'm Gaara,''.

Sakura laughed a bit and said "ok then, I'm Sakura,''.

"Gaara please take your seat,'' a man, who Sakura assumed to be the teacher, said walking in the class.

He looked at Sakura and said "I'm assuming you're the new student, Sakura Haruno'' Sakura nodded "I'm your math teacher, Kekashi, welcome to Konoha High. Alright class, open your books to page 123 and do questions 1 through 37,''.

Sakura was finished in twenty minutes. No one else was done so she listened to her iPod. Five minutes later she looked up and noticed that the guy with his hair in a ponytail was done.

"You're the first person to be finished before me, impressive,'' he told her (he was two desks away from her).

"Thanks,'' she told him.

"I'm Shikamaru,'' he told her.

"Nice to meet you, you already know my name,'' Sakura replied.

"Shikamaru and Sakura please stop talking,'' Kekashi told them, looking up from a book he was reading.

Sakura smiled and drew for a bit.

For the last five minutes of class, most everyone was done so Kekashi let everyone talk.

"So where did you come from?'' Gaara asked Sakura.

Sakura smiled "a lot of places,''.

She received a confused look and se told him "I move a lot with another girl named Tenten, she's a year older then me,''.

"So she's in Neji's grade,'' Gaara confirmed.

"Who?'' Sakura asked.

"Did you see the guy with the long black hair and white eyes?'' Gaara asked, Sakura nodded "that's him,''.

"He's m-my c-cousin,'' Hinata spoke up.

"Wow Gaara I've never heard you talk so much to someone outside of us before,'' the guy with blonde hair yelled, walking up to them.

"This is Naruto,'' Gaara told Sakura, pointing to the blonde. Sakura noticed that Hinata blushed a bit when he came up.

"Hey you're the girl that glared at me before,'' Naruto announced, pointing to Sakura.

"That's because I don't like people staring at me,'' Sakura explained.

"That's ok, can we see your schedule?'' Naruto asked.

Sakura shrugged and showed it to them.

Gaara frowned and told her "you're in Sasuke's class next,''.

"You really need to explain who these people are before you tell them to me,'' Sakura told him.

"He's Gaara's rival,'' Naruto explained.

"He's a very troublesome person,'' Shikamaru told her.

Just as the bell rang and Sakura followed Hinata to their next class, social.

"D-do y-you think you'll l-like it h-here Sakura?'' Hinata asked as they went into the class.

"I think so,'' Sakura replied. Just then two guys came in the class, followed by about six girls. "Then again,'' she told Hinata. She recognized them as the one with the spiky black hair and the one with sunglasses.

The one with the spiky hair looked to where Sakura and Hinata were standing and went over to them. "Hey cutie, so you're the new girl,'' he told her.

"Yep,'' she growled, not liking the fact that she was just called cutie

"I'm Sasuke and the other guy is Shino,'' he told her. Sakura didn't reply. "Aren't you going to tell me your name?'' he asked.

"I say it to people who I think is worth it,'' Sakura told him. He and Shino got a surprised look on their faces and all the girls (except Hinata) got a shocked look on their faces. "If you want to find out, wait for the teacher to call me,'' she told him.

"Feisty, I like that,'' Sasuke told her.

She told him "you're pathetic,''. A lot of the girls fainted, and Sasuke and Shino looked REALLY surprised.

"Take your seats everyone,'' a female voice called. Sakura looked to see a young women come in the classroom.

"Are you the new student?'' she asked. Sakura nodded "please say a bit about yourself,''.

Sakura sighed and said "my name is Sakura and I think it's pointless to say anything else because I'll probably won't be here for a long time,''.

"Alright, Sakura please take a seat next to Sasuke. By the way, my name's Kurenai,'' the teacher told her.

Sakura grudgingly took a seat next Sasuke. Sasuke smirked at her and she glared back. Sakura listened to Kurenai talking about World War I.

Sakura met Tenten at their lockers after class. "So how was your first half of the day?'' Sakura asked Tenten.

"I had English and bio, what do you think?'' Tenten replied.

Sakura laughed then said "mine was ok; I met some new people anyway. The one bad part is that I have a huge player named Sasuke in my class. Oh, do you have a guy named Neji in any of your classes by any chance?''.

"Yes. He's in my bio class. Why?'' Tenten asked.

"He's Hinata's cousin,'' Sakura explained.

"I thought they looked familiar,'' Tenten thought out loud. Then they walked to the cafeteria.

Temari and Hinata were eating at a table and Temari saw them and waved them over.

"So did you meet my brothers?' Temari asked. When Sakura looked at her confused she explained "Gaara's in Sakura's grade and Kankurou's in mine and Tenten's grade,''.

"Yes,'' Sakura replied.

"I haven't met Kankurou,'' Tenten told Temari.

"Well you probably will sometime today,'' Temari told her. Then she looked to Sakura and asked "so how do you like my brother?''.

Sakura shrugged "he's alright. Hey do you know why Gaara doesn't like Sasuke. I mean besides the fact that he's a major player and all,''.

"Gaara and Sasuke have hated each other ever since Gaara came to Konoha High,'' Sakura gave her a confused look. Then Temari said "alright, I'll tell you the whole story. We, I mean Gaara, Kankurou and I came, came to Konoha High about four months ago from Suna. Before that this place was basically Sasuke's territory''

"When we came Gaara basically became Sasuke's equal. He got his own gang, fan girls, and even some spots on the sports teams. Now Sasuke didn't like competing so he told Gaara to back off and Gaara, being Gaara and all, wasn't willing to back down. Ever since Gaara and Sasuke have been rivals; in a way they have the school divided up. If your friends with someone of a certain gang and go hang out with someone from the other gang it's considered treason,'' Temari explained.

"Wow,'' was all Sakura and Tenten could say.

"So who's in each gang?'' Sakura asked after a moment.

"Well,'' Temari started, pointing to the group of people Gaara was with "as you know, the redhead's Gaara, the one with the ponytail is Shikamaru, the one with long hair is Neji, you have probably guessed he's Hinata's cousin. Finally, the obnoxious one with blonde hair is Naruto, Hinata secretly likes him,''.

Temari pointed to the group Sasuke was in "as you know Sakura, the one with spiky black hair is Sasuke, the one with short black hair is Sai, the one with greyish blonde hair is Tayuya and the one with sunglasses is Shino, he likes Hinata but Neji won't let him get near her,''.

"Oh,'' Temari said, pointing to a final group of people "I just remembered. There's one more gang I forgot to tell you about. Sasuke also hates their leader. It's the one with the black hair in a ponytail, his name's Itachi and he's Sasuke's brother. This gang actually has a name, the Akatsuki, they're all seniors. The one with blonde hair in a ponytail is Deidera, the one who probably reminds you of a fish is Kisame and the one with red hair is Sasori,''.

"That's a lot of name's to remember,'' Tenten remarked.

"You get used to it,'' Temari told her.

"Joy,'' Tenten mumbled, she didn't like having to remember a lot of info at once.

For the rest of lunch period Temari told them about other stuff at the school. Like the principle was a drunk, the crazy gym teacher and his "sidekick", the creepy science teacher and his assistant who Sasuke had some connection to, and the perverted health teacher.

By the time she was over the bell rang and Sakura and Tenten went to their locker s to get their stuff. Sakura looked at her schedule. "Gym and drama, great,'' Sakura thought to herself.

"Hey pinkie,'' a girl with blonde hair told Sakura, walking up to her.

"What blonde?'' Sakura asked, repeating the girl's tone.

"My name's Ino, head of the Sasuke fan club and I'm warning you to stay away from him!'' she told Sakura.

"You can have him, he's an ass anyway,'' Sakura told her. Before Ino could respond Sakura already left thinking "this is a very weird school,''.


	2. the strange and different

Sakura and Hinata went out of the change room to the gym floor where most of the guys were.

"Hey guys,'' Naruto called.

Sakura looked over and he was with Shikamaru near the centre of the gym. She and Hinata walked over to them.

"So when does the creepy gym teacher get here?'' Sakura asked.

"He usually arrives one minute exactly before the bell,'' Shikamaru explained.

Sure enough, exactly one minute before the bell rang an adult wearing green spandex appeared, along with someone who looked like a smaller version of him.

"Alright class, today we have a new student,'' the teacher called and looked over to her "and here she is,''.

"Um...hi….my name is Sakura,'' Sakura announced quietly.

"I am your gym teacher Gai and this is my assistant Lee,'' he told her, posing. Then he stood up straight and announced "alright class, we will start our youthfulness by running 20 laps around the gym – go for it!''.

The class groaned and started running. Sakura was soon finished and Naruto soon followed.

"Wow your really fast Sakura!'' he complimented.

"Thanks,'' she replied. Then she looked over to Shikamaru and Hinata who were finishing their last lap and were coming up to them.

"That was so troublesome,'' Shikamaru complained.

Before Sakura could respond the teacher yelled out "alright class, today we will be playing dodge ball,''

"What a youthful sport Gai-sensai! Lee called out.

"Thank you Lee,'' Gai replied "I will now break you off into teams,''.

Hinata, Sakura, Naruto, and Shikamaru ended up being on the same team.

"Hey pinky,'' a voice called from the other side of the gym. Sakura turned and saw Ino.

"Well if it isn't the skanky blonde,'' Sakura told her.

"Why you!'' Ino called back angrily, then she suddenly calmed down and said "it doesn't matter anyway. You're going down!''.

"I'll believe that when I see it,'' Sakura replied.

Then Gai blew a whistle and the game started. Sakura took a ball and threw it on the other side of the gym hitting some random guy out.

Then she looked at the people on her team while dodging some balls. Shikamaru was at the end of the gym and looked like he was trying to sleep. Naruto was involved in the game and Hinata was one the sidelines.

Sakura walked over to her. "Why aren't you playing?'' Sakura asked.

"Because I'm probably bad at it,'' Hinata told her sadly.

"You never know until you try,'' Sakura told her, handing her a ball "and even if you might be, it's fun and you get to knock out fan girls and not get detention for it,''.

Hinata laughed and followed Sakura to where Naruto was. "I thought you weren't going to play Hinata,'' Naruto told her, confused.

"She is now,'' Sakura told him.

Hinata threw the ball and hit a girl who was friends with Ino. "Great job Hinata!'' Naruto congratulated.

"Nice one,'' Sakura told her.

Hinata turned beet red from the compliments "t-thanks guys,'' she told them.

Apparently Ino didn't enjoy that as much as Sakura and Naruto did. "You're going down Hinata! You two Pinky! she yelled.

Bring it Blondie! Sakura yelled back.

That started a mini war against the two girls. Ino proved that she was good at dodging, but it didn't compare to Sakuras over ability at both dodging and throwing.

Soon each of them had a ball and they caught each other's eyes and glared at each other and if you listened hard enough, you could hear theme music in the background.

"Ok whoever's playing the music stop," Sakura yelled.

"Sorry", answered a random guy with a boom box as he clicked the off button.

Sakura and Ino continued their glaring and they raised their balls in unison, preparing to hit each other when a ball came flying and hit Ino in the stomach, knocking her down.

They both looked to see a girl jumping up and down at her victory then Sakura caught Inos eye and waved while smirking at her. Ino glared back.

The rest of the game was unproductive and in the end, Sakuras team won (no surprise there).

When Sakura and Hinata emerged from the change room Ino was there waiting for them.

What do you want Ino?" Sakura asked.

"I just want to tell you that when I warned you to back off from Sasuke, I also meant to not mess with me or my friends, that goes for you to Hinata'' Ino warned.

Hinata whimpered, not wanting to mess with the popular girl but Sakura had other ideas. "Ino, can I talk to you in private?'' she asked.

"Ok,'' Ino replied, confused.

Sakura led Ino to a corner in the gym where no one else could see them. "Ok Ino,'' she started "normally, I would have blown this off but you've also threatened my friend so I'm going to tell you right now to back off,''.

"Or what,'' Ino sneered.

Sakura pushed Ino into a wall and whispered into her ear "or you'll figure out first hand how I was expelled from five schools,''.

Sakura released Ino and Ino scampered away while Sakura walked while smirking at Ino's fear.

When Sakura met up with Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru at the other side of the gym. "What did you do?'' Naruto asked, looking at Ino.

"She threatened me and Hinata so I just…talked to her privately,'' Sakura explained.

"Well whatever you did, you got through to her,'' Shikamaru observed. Sakura silently noted that when she mentioned that Hinata had also been threatened, Naruto tensed.

'I suppose so,'' Sakura agreed.

Then the bell rang. What do you have next Sakura." Naruto asked.

Sakura looked at her schedule "chem.,'' she answered.

"You have it with Gaara then,'' Naruto told her.

"Good, then I'll know someone,'' Sakura answered happily.

"He won't be there,'' Shikamaru told her.

"Why not?'' she asked confused "he was here today,''.

"He always skips that block to go smokes marijuana,'' Shikamaru explained.

"He smokes marijuana?'' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Yep, anyway he also skips because Sasuke is in that class,'' Shikamaru explained.

"Joy,'' she said disappointedly

Sakura entered her chem. Class and looked for a seat. Most of them were taken up by people. They were divided into two groups. No surprise, the person in the centre of one of them was Sasuke.

However, there were a few seats available at the other side of the room, by the windows and there was a girl seating alone at one of them.

Somehow Sakura managed to get there without being noticed by Sasuke. "Do you mind if I sit here?''.

"Go ahead,'' the girl answered shyly.

"Thanks,'' Sakura told her, seating down in a seat right beside her. "So, if you don't mind me asking, why aren't you sitting with someone of those people,'' she asked, pointing to the two groups.

"I don't have any friends here,'' she answered sadly, staring at her desk. Sakura cursed herself for asking such a hurtful question.

"Then why don't I be your friend, ignore how corny that sounds'' Sakura offered.

The girl's blue eyes shot up at her "really?'' she asked in disbelief.

"Sure, I'm Sakura and if you haven't already guessed it, I'm new here,'' Sakura told her.

"I'm Leyna, and I've been here since the beginning of school,'' Leyna told her with a grin. "So how was your first day so far?'' she asked.

"Well, besides being hit on by Mr. Chicken but aka. Sasuke, it was good, I've made some new friends anyway,'' Sakura answered.

"Who?'' Leyna asked after she laughed at the comment about Sasuke.

"Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Gaara-

"You're friends with Gaara?'' Leyna asked in disbelief.

"Yeah,'' Sakura told her.

"Then why aren't you sitting over there?'' Leyna asked, pointing to the group that Sasuke wasn't a part of. "Minus the fan girls, they'd let you sit with them,''.

Sakura shrugged "I thought I'd give you some company besides, I've learned to not like crowds, me and my sister Tenten have moved enough to know that hanging with crowds all the time isn't worth the trouble it takes to get in them,".

Leyna smiled at this, putting some of her long black hair behind her ear. "So are you on one of the the "sides"?" Sakura asked.

"No, my small group of friends and I aren't on either Gaara's or Sasuke's "side",'' Leyna answered, then added "I guess it's obvious that your on Gaara's "side",''.

"I don't like Sasuke and I guess you can say I'm friends with Gaara and his friends but I don't think I'm on a "side". I mean, I won't decide on who to hang out with just on what "side" someone else is on, I'll befriend anyone I like,'' Sakura stated proudly.

"Don't let anyone else know that,'' Leyna warned.

"Why not?'' Sakura asked, confused.

"Well, if you haven't noticed already, the school's pretty much divided. If your on one "side" and even have a friendly conversation that doesn't involve threatening each other or trashing another group, it's considered treason,'' Leyna explained.

"Wow,'' was all Sakura could say. Then she asked "just so I don't get into any trouble, is there any other things I should know? Any girls I should watch out for?''.

"Actually yes. You need to worry about some girls. Sasuke is constantly dumping and hooking up and you can't really keep track, personally, I don't think he keeps track either. Anyway, there's also Mizuki, she's Gaara's girlfriend,''

"Gaara has a girlfriend?'' Sakura interrupted.

"Yep, she's not here today but when she's here, she usually doesn't hang out with Gaara when he's with his friends so she you probably won't see much of her when you hang out with him and the rest of your friends. I don't have to describe her to you because if you see them hang out together and catch what they do, you'll know it's her,'' Leyna explained.

She took a deep breath before finishing "Gaara's a bit of a play boy, but not much as much as Sasuke. Gaara always has a girlfriend. Back to Mizuki, you want to watch out for her, she's not really a bad person, but don't act flirty around Gaara if you know what's good for you. As for the Akatsuki, they don't really hang out with girls that much, at least not from this school,''.

"You know a lot about the gossip here,'' Sakura observed.

"I only catch bits and pieces. If you think I know a lot, you should see what others know. You could write a book on what happens here,'' Leyna explained.

Just as she finished, the teacher came in. "Hello Class. Today we have a new student,'' he looked over to where Sakura was "and there she is,''.

Sasuke, who didn't see her yet, shot his head to where she was and had a "what the heck" look on his face. That soon changed to a smirk when he grasped the fact that Sakura was in a class that Gaara didn't show up in.

"Please, come up and introduce yourself, I am Orochimaru,'' the teacher told her.

Sakura walked up to the front of the class room and spoke up "my name is Sakura, there really isn't anything else to say,''. She walked back to her chair and sat down.

"Okay class, turn to page 242 and to questions 1-49,'' he announced. There was a groan form the class and then he said "okay, just for that you can also do questions 63-76. Don't do it again,''.

There wasn't a groan after that but a lot of people had a sour look on their face. Sakura looked got out the textbook and started doing the questions. After a while she looked up to Leyna and said "no offense, but you really don't look like you're in grade eleven."

"Oh I'm not. I'm actually 17, going on 18 in a few months, and I'm in grade twelve I'm just here because the school I was at before didn't this course, so I'm taking this class till I'm caught up,''.

"Ok,'' Sakura replied before getting back to her work.

Eventually the block was over and Sakura told Leyna goodbye, then left the classroom.

When Sakura stopped at her locker Tenten was there to greet her. "Hey,'' they greeted each other.

"So how was your second half of the day?" Tenten asked. Sakura told her the long conversation she had with Leyna. "Wow,'' Tenten said bluntly after that.

"So how was your second half of the day?'' Sakura asked Tenten.

"Well I met Kankurou, he's in basketball with me,'' Tenten answered.

"What's he like?'' Sakura asked.

Well, he's nice enough, a bit perverted though,'' Tenten answered.

"Great,'' Sakura told her "so out of all the schools we've been to, do you think this one's the strangest?''.

"Absolutely,'' Tenten replied "we've been to one's were a few people were on "sides", but most people were in their own little groups,''.

As they were walking out they saw Gaara, Hinata, Naruto, Neji, Temari, and a guy Sakura guessed to be Kankurou. Temari saw them and waved them over. When they were walking over Sakura noticed that Gaara stunk of marijuana (I don't know if marijuana has a smell but let's just pretend it smells worse or just as bad as cigarettes)

"Hey,'' Sakura told them. She looked to Gaara and said "so I'm in your chem. Class,''.

"I guess you are,'' he answered, lowering his arm. That was when Sakura noticed the marijuana he held in his hand. She looked at it with disgust. Gaara silently took note of this.

"So I guess you have a reason to go there now Gaara,'' Naruto spoke up.

"I'm still not going,'' Gaara replied.

Sakura glanced at her watch "oh Tenten, we have to go now, we have to meet Mikoto at our house in fifteen minutes,''.

"Oh alright, see yeah,'' Tenten told the group as she ands Sakura started to walk away.

'Bye,'' Sakura yelled out.

"See yeah,'' Temari, Hinata, and Naruto yelled back (Hinata's was more like s-see y-yeah).

Sakura and Tenten put down their skateboards, and skated away.


	3. I'm back!

Beep-beep-beep- Smash. Sakura's fist collided with the alarm clock. She looked up, surprisingly, it wasn't broken. Groaning, she emerged from her bed and went to the shower.

Twenty minutes later, she arrived in the kitchen wearing a black tank top and cameo pants. Tenten was already there with Mikoto. "Hey sleepy head,'' Mikoto told her, holding a coffee cup.

"Hey I didn't take that long!'' Sakura protested.

'Yes you did,'' Tenten replied.

Sakura glared at her and made toast. "Well sorry that I'm not a morning person,''.

"You should be,'' Tenten joked.

"Hey just because I don't get ready till…EIGHT!'' Sakura explained. School started in fifteen minutes.

"You don't have enough time to skateboard, you guys have to take the truck,'' Mikoto told them.

They nodded and rushed out to their black truck. Somehow they managed to get to the school, get their books, and make it to class in time.

With Sakura …

Hinata looked up and smiled at Sakura 'you just made it,''.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief "I know,''.

Right after she said that Kakashi appeared "hello class. Sorry I'm late. Anyway, please go to pg. 242 in your text books and do questions 28-50,''. After that he started reading a book.

"So do you like it here so far Sakura?'' Hinata asked.

"Well, there are some people I'd rather do without,'' she explained, drifting her sight to a bunch of fan girls before continuing "but yes I do like this school,''.

Hinata looked relieved and said 'I'm glad you think so,''.

With Tenten…

Tenten raced into class, barely sitting down beside Neji before the bell to start class rang.

"Hey,'' she told him, almost out of breath.

"That was quite an entrance you made there,'' he joked.

She smiled playfully "thank you,''.

"Alright class,'' Asuma called out "to start today's lesson, please turn to page 66 in your textbooks and do questions 10-25, please hand it in when you're finished''.

Tenten opened her book and start doing the questions. She was done in about fifteen minutes "well I think that was fast,'' she thought to herself.

"Gosh you're slow,'' Neji told her. Tenten looked up; not only was he done, he had already handed it in.

"Well sorry but bio is not my best subject. Now if we were on the basketball court, I'd own you,'' she proclaimed.

"Oh really?'' he asked.

"Yes really,'' she answered.

"Why don't we just try out that theory,'' he suggested.

"Sure, when and where?'' she asked, willing to take on his challenge.

"After school, on the basketball court outside,'' he told her.

"You're on,'' Tenten replied, narrowing her eyes.

Time skip to after school…

"So are you going to watch mine and Neji's basketball game?'' Tenten asked Sakura as they left the school.

"Are you kidding? Of course I will!'' Sakura assured her.

"Alright, let's go then,'' Tenten told her. They went out to the basketball court where the whole gang was you know who I' talking about).

"I guess news travels fast,'' remarked Sakura.

"Apparently,'' Tenten muttered to her.

"Ready to lose Tenten?'' Neji asked, walking up to her with a basketball.

"No, but I know you are,'' Tenten replied.

"See yeah when you win,'' Sakura told her as she went to sit by Hinata.

Neji ignored this and said "it looks like someone's cocky,''.

"Just because I know the outcome of the match does not mean I'm cocky,'' Tenten replied back.

They looked like they were going to continue but Naruto called out "stop the trash talk, just play already!''.

Neji glared at him then said "first one to seven wins, since I'm nice, I'll let you start with the ball,''

'Ok, your loss,'' she told him as she caught the ball. Then with lightening speed, she ran past him with the ball and shot the ball into the net. She smirked at his shocked face. "You shouldn't underestimate me,''.

'That's a mistake I won't make again,'' he told her.

As the game continued, they found that their skills were pretty matched. They kept scoring one after the other till they were both at six.

"This is it,'' Tenten told Neji.

Just as they were about to start for the last time, Mikoto drove up in her car "Sakura, Tenten you two need to take your truck and come with me,''.

"Can it wait?'' Tenten asked.

"No, come on,'' Mikoto urged.

"Don't worry Tenten; we'll call it a tie,'' Neji told her before remarking "mama's girl,''.

Tenten glared at him, and then she and Sakura ran out to their truck.

They followed Mikoto's car to the airport "why do you think we're here?'' Sakura asked.

"Don't ask me,'' Tenten answered, shrugging as they got out of the car.

They ran up to catch Mikoto "so what are we doing here?'' Sakura asked.

Mikoto grinned and answered "you'll see,''.

When they entered the airport, they greeted with a familiar and furry sight.

"Scrappy!'' Sakura and Tenten yelled with happiness. Scrappy was their dog, he couldn't come with them when they first came here because the airplane people had something against pets, but he was here now, and that was all that mattered.

They embraced their Husky with glee. 'We missed you Scrappy,'' Sakura told him. He barked back happily.

Time skip….

They arrived back home and got out of the car. "So were will he be sleeping?'' Sakura asked Mikoto.

"Wherever you two want,'' she told them.

They looked to each other and said at the same time "our room!''. Sakura and Tenten had a room in the house that they shared (no not a bedroom, they each have their own bedroom) where they just chilled out most of the time.

"If you want him there,'' Mikoto told them.

"Thank you!'' they yelled back as they ran with Scrappy to show him his new home.

**Guess what people… I'M BACK (at least for now)**


	4. an eventful morning

Sakura woke up to the feeling of something licking her face. All she had done last night was pretty much homework, play with Scrappy, and play some sports with Tenten. Surprisingly enough, after that when she went to bed she fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up once. Her eyes slowly opened to see Scrappy on top her bed wagging his tail at her. She groaned, how did he get in here? Her gaze turned to the door and she saw that it was open. Great… Why did he have to wake her up so early in the morning? It was only…EIGHT THIRTY!!!

She leaped up out of her bed and ran over to her closet to get some clothes, than over to the shower. After a five minute showed and a minute of putting on clothes, she ran out to the kitchen where, strangely, Tenten was. Tenten was sipping a bottle of Root Beer, she looked at Sakura strangely and asked, "Why the rush?"

Sakura looked at her. Was she crazy? "Because I slept in and now we're late for school," she said in a way that sounded like it was the simplest answer ever.

Tenten paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. When she finally stopped to breathe, she looked up, "Sakura, it's Saturday."

Sakura stopped and her eyes began to get wide. Saturday? Well that would explain why her alarm didn't go off… She sighed, exasperated "I got ready for nothing."

"Well at least you're ready for the day. Want a pancake, Mikoto made them earlier." Tenten offered, motioning towards a plate filled with pancakes next to a bottle of syrup.

"Might as well," Sakura replied, feeling defeated. She slugged over to the table and sat down, taking a pancake and eating it. She preferred them plain, which was why she could eat them with her fingers. Soon she was finished. What should she do now? She looked out the kitchen window, it looked nice. Maybe she should go for a run. Yeah, that's what she'd do.

She got up and went back to her room to grab a sweater. She grabbed a navy blue one, and pulled it over her t-shirt. Then she went over to brush her teeth. When that was finished, she grabbed her iPod and keys then went back to the kitchen where Tenten was throwing her pop can away. "Make sure you recycle it," Sakura reminded her.

Tenten rolled her eyes and looked over, "Do you know how annoying your environmental standards are?"

Sakura grinned, "Yep, but they are effective nonetheless." Then she walked towards the front entrance of the house, "By the way, I'm going for a run. I took my keys. See you in a while."

Tenten nodded, "Alright, I probably wont be here when you get back, going to shoot hoops over at that basketball court near our house."

"Have fun," Sakura replied, putting on her shoes then walking out side the door. She shut the door behind her then put her ear phones to her iPod on. After she chose a song she liked, she began to run. She didn't know where exactly she wanted to go, so she figured that she'd just go around a few blocks. As she ran she thought about the new school. It seemed ok, but that idea about the gangs was really getting to her.

She didn't really pay attention to her surroundings so when Leyna came up running, Sakura had to skid to a stop in order to not hit the girl. "Whoah there, sorry Leyna." Sakura told her. Leyna looked rather shocked but recovered very quickly.

"That's alright," she replied to Sakura, "It's not like that's the first time that happened. But that might be one of the only times when it was accidental."

Sakura frowned, "Well that really sucks. Hey what did I catch you doing?"

"Just going for a jog."

"Sweet so am I, want to come with me?"

Leyna looked surprised, "Really?"

Sakura grinned, "Yeah, come on," So the two began to run together. Sakura saw that Leyna was actually pretty good at running; she never had to stop to wait for Leyna to catch her breath. As they ran, they talked. Sakura found out that Leyna had a few friends at the school, but they weren't in very many of her classes. They were there before the big rivalry and, like Leyna, didn't see point in getting involved with it once it started. Sakura also found out that Leyna was often shunned and picked on because apparently neither side wanted to have her there (Sakura replied by saying they were just trying to make themselves feel better because they knew that she didn't want to join them). Sakura told Leyna about some of her life prior to coming to the school, about how she always got in fights but her high grades still allowed he to come to good schools. She also told her about Tenten, and their dog Scrappy.

"It sounds really fun," Leyna said as they neared Leyna's house. "Well, I had a really fun time running with you. Hope we can hang out soon."

Right before Leyna went inside Sakura thought of something. There was a new movie coming out, maybe they could go see it together. "Hey Leyna."

Leyna stopped as she was opening her door and looked over, "Yes?"

"Why don't we see that new movie that's coming out tonight?"

Leyna smiled, "Sounds good, see you there around six." Then she disappeared into the house.

Sakura put in her head phones and began running back home. Now she had something to look forward to. And it was with Leyna. She really thought Leyna was a good person, kinda shy but really nice. It was a shame that she was treated so badly. Sakura really wanted to make that stop. But she didn't think she was high up enough on the social ladder to make that happen. If she tried to make a difference, then no one might notice because she was still just the new girl. Still, she should try to do something…. She sighed as she walked into the house. This really required more thought.

* * *

**With Tenten**

After Tenten had finished putting the pop can into the recycle bin (just in case Sakura decided to check it later) she walked into her room and grabbed her basketball. It was right next to her other sports equipment. Actually, her entire room was filled with sports equipment. So much so that in some areas you could not see the ground. Her room was rather messy, but she why try to clean it? What was the point of putting something away if you were just going to use it again tomorrow?

With the ball in hand she walked out of her room and over to the front entrance. Then she put on her shoes, opened the door, and walked out. After shutting the door, she began to walk over to the basketball court.

In truth it wasn't really all that close to their house. Probably about 10 blocks, give or take. Still, it was worth it to go and throw her ball around. It took her about thirty minutes to get to the park, and then she walked over to the nearest net and began throwing the ball at the hoop.

Her record was 30 baskets in a row. And today, she was going to beat that. She threw the ball at the hoop, it fell in. That was one. She threw it in again, that was two. Three, four…ten…twenty…twenty nine….thirty. This was it, one more shot and she would beat her goal. She grinned, feeling adrenaline pump through her veins. She lined up the shot and was just about to throw it in when "Hey ugly!"

She jumped and watched the ball miss the net. She groaned then glared at the person coming up. "What do you want? Couldn't you see that I was about to make a shot?"

"Yes I could but I figured that it couldn't be all that important so I came over anyways." It was a male.

Tenten looked at him suspiciously, "You're Sai right?"

He nodded, "The one and only. And you're Tenten, the new girl."

She glared at him, "So Sai, I was in the middle of making a shot that would beat my personal all-time score, so I would really like to know what was so important for you to come over here."

He shrugged, a lazy grin on his face, "Wanted to see if you wanted to play a little one on one."

She looked at him shocked, "You stopped me from beating my personal score, because you wanted to play one on one?"

He nodded, "That's what I just said isn't it? Anyways, if you don't think you're good enough to play against me, that's fine."

Tenten twitched and suddenly felt very determined, "You are so on!" The two began playing and it became apparent that both of them were very good. They were tied almost the entire game. When they neared the end Sai had the ball and was about to take a shot when Tenten reached up and blocked it. Then she took the ball and threw it in the hoop. She grinned as it fell through the hoop. "Yeah, that's 30, I win! In your face!"

Sai rolled his eyes, "Yes you beat me, big deal." Still, he had a smile on his face.

"You're pretty good." she told him, taking the ball under her arm. "Anyways I better go now. See ya later."

"Bye," he replied, turning and walking back in the direction he came from.

She began to walk back towards her house. It had been a pretty good morning so far. Hopefully the rest if the day would be just as good.


	5. bad connections

**Alright people for this I shall be taking this story in a different direction. I wasn't planning this at first, but after a while I had decided to change it. Trying to make it a bit different than the cliche "she joins the gang and everything is fine as the relationship between her and guy grows" type of thing (not that there's anything wrong with that but I just didn't want to do it).**

Sakura went franticly around her room. Where did she put that dang wallet? The movie was in twenty minutes, meaning she had five minutes to get her butt over there. But there was no point in going if she couldn't find her dang wallet. She was usually organized, but for some reason when it came to her wallet she was very sloppy. In fact everything in her room had its own specific place, except for her wallet. For some reason that small but oh so important piece of fabric always seemed to get lost. "Looking for this?" Sakura turned to see Tenten standing by the door, holding the wallet in her right hand.

Sakura smiled and let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you! Did I tell her how amazing you are yet today?"

"Hmm, nope." Tenten answered as she handed Sakura her wallet.

"Well, right now you are very amazing." Sakura told Tenten as she started to run out of the house. "I'll be home at around eight." She ran almost the entire way to the theatre. Fortunately, she had looked up where it was before two hours ago so directions weren't an issue.

As the theatre came into sight her run slowed into a walk and by the time she had reached the building, she had almost stopped panting. Her eyes drifted to her watch, she had thirteen minutes till the movie started, didn't look to bad considering she had just ran there from six blocks away.

She walked over and bought her ticket. It was an adventure movie; Sakura preferred horror movies, but usually she was ok with any type of movie as long as it wasn't too cheesy (in other words, she wasn't a fan of most romance movies). Then she looked around for Leyna. She found the girl standing near the back of the theatre, looking rather disappointed.

Sakura ran up to her. "Hey."

When Leyna saw Sakura she immediately brightened. "Oh hey." She looked down and a small blush crept onto her face. "I kinda thought for a while that you weren't going to show."

Sakura immediately apologized and began to feel bad. "I'm really sorry! I just had to find this stupid thing." She waved the wallet in the air.

Leyna gave a small smile. "Oh, well, I guess that's fine. We should probably go see the movie." The two left to go see the movie.

The previews were just beginning to start when the two entered the room. They both began to look for seats. "Hey, Sakura!" she looked to see Naruto near the front waving his hands in the air, getting dirty looks from people around him. Hinata, and Neji were also there, both were looking down appearing to be ashamed. "Come... over...here." He stopped his yelling when he saw that she was with Leyna.

Sakura frowned. Naruto seemed really nice before, why was he suddenly acting like that now? Leyna not being part of their group wasn't that big of a deal was it? "Sakura..." Leyna began to say, "I know that they don't want to sit with me. Don't worry, you can sit with them. It's ok. I won't be offended."

She narrowed her eyes, feeling protective of her friend. "No, I came with you, not them. I'll sit with you."

Once again Leyna brightened. She was almost completely expecting Sakura to leave and go with them. And she was really happy that her pink haired friend decided to stay. Friend, could she call Sakura that? She hasn't known Sakura for a long time; but, she thought that she could honestly call Sakura a friend.

Sakura broke the girl's trance by dragging her over to a pair of seats near the back, leaving a very confused Naruto to sit back down beside Hinata. The movie turned out to be alright. Basically the plot of the movie was that a man a girl from some Faerie tribe had gotten sick of her tribe's unfair ways and had decided to leave for the safety of the mountains. The fact that the leader of the tribe was fond of her just made it harder. When the tribe found out about this, they grew angered and chased her out of their territory. Through many events, she eventually gained back their trust, but decided to leave anyway. The ending was pretty predictable: the girl made it out to the mountains and began a new life. Apparently there was going to be a sequel to it coming out next year. It wasn't one that Sakura would go see again in theatres, but she might rent it when it came on DVD.

After the movie was over the two walked out of the theatre. "So how are you getting home?" Leyna asked when they were out in the parking lot, the moonlight shining high over top of them.

"Walking," Sakura replied, "You?"

"I'm driving," Leyna said shyly. She began to walk away, "Bye."

"See ya." Sakura walked away from the theatre.

"Oh right, wait!" Leyna called out. Sakura halted and turned around. "There's a girl in your first and second block class named Nami. She's a friend of mine, and she is usually there along but don't tell her I said that. Anyways I just wanted to give you a heads up."

Sakura nodded and walked back towards her house. So there was a girl in her class that was one of the "outcasts". Strange, but then again, when you're not looking someone why would you see them? Maybe she'd go sit by her on Monday. If she did so she would have to face the gang not being happy with her again. She still remembered Naruto's look when he saw Leyna. Oh gosh she was going to have a fun time on Monday. She hated awkward and bad situations, and two days from it would probably be one. Now that she knew about Nami she had to do the right thing, her guilt would make her. Suddenly the weekend seemed to be incredibly short.

* * *

Mikoto was home when she got back. "Hey Sakura." The women called out.

Sakura took off her shoes at the entryway, then walked up to see Mikoto taking a box back to another room and Tenten lying on the floor watching TV (the girl never seemed to like couches). "Hey," Sakura told the two of them as she watched Mikoto dissapear into another room.

"Yo," Tenten looked over and clicked the TV off. "So who'd you see the movie with?"

"A girl named Leyna," Sakura replied, plopping down on the sofa.

Tenten's eyebrows went up. "Leyna? I don't remember Temari talking about her. Is she new to?"

Sakura shook her head. "No she's not new. She's just not in the gang. Actually, she's not really in any of the three gangs."

"Really?" Tenten asked, still somewhat surprised. "I remember Neji telling me something about the people who aren't in any gangs. Apparently all three groups tend to avoid them as much as possible. He called them unworthy or something like that. It might be bad for your rep if you keep hanging out with her."

Sakura lied down sideways so that she facing Tenten. "Oh well, she's my friend and I want it to stay that way. If the other groups don't like it that's fine."

Tenten shrugged, "That sounded corny. Anyways I'm probably not that much different than you. I hung out Sai today, he's in Sasuke's gang. So apparently we both broke the rule of not talking to people outside of our group."

It was Sakura's turn to shrug. "I don't like following rules that I don't see the point in. But I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to seeing everyone's reaction on Monday when they find out that I'm now friends with "an outsider"." Scrappy came over from the kitchen and looked around before jumping up on the couch and sitting down by Sakura's leg.

Tenten laughed, "Right, you hate confrontations. You should really get over that."

Sakura sighed while reaching over to pet Scrappy's fur, "I don't know if something I can get over." The two talked Mikoto came to join them and asked for 'an update of their current life'. They kept talking about that before they all decided to go to bed (it was eleven pm).

Sakura quickly changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and crawled into her bed. She quickly fell into an uneasy sleep and dreamed about the movie she saw where she was the girl and the tribe was Gaara's gang. But this time when they chased her out they didn't welcome her back later, they kept chasing her out with spears and swords, saying that she had betrayed them.

* * *

**So did you like it? I want to ask something from all of you readers. Please tell me _all_ your thoughts on this story. Whatever your opinion is, I want to hear it. Please tell me if there is anything in the story you don't like, whether it's the length, the grammer, the plot or even just people in it. The one thing I don't like is when people say "This sucks" without giving a good reason why. In short, please give me your feedback.**


	6. A really bad day

"Hey, you ok?" Tenten asked Sakura.

Sakura looked up and shrugged. She had just zoned out thinking about the events going to take place at the school. Fortunately it was Tenten driving so she didn't have to concentrate on anything else. "I just have a really bad feeling about today." She explained, looking out the window as they neared the school parking lot. As they neared it they saw that Gaara's group was standing a lot closer to the parking lot than usual. Like they were waiting for someone. "And now I'm freaked out."

"Just tough it out." Tenten replied, pulling into a parking spot. "It's not like you can do much else." As they were pulling in Sakura saw Leyna's small group of friends standing a ways away from the other group. Tenten stopped the car and the two undid their seatbelts.

"Yeah I guess." Sakura replied. As she got out of the truck and shut the door she saw Gaara's group look at her. Not the entire group of course. Just the people she saw on her first day here, the usual crowd. And they all had grim looks on their faces. She thought to herself, "And so it begins."

She began walking towards them, and they towards her. They met halfway. The whole group was looking at Sakura. "Hey Tenten." Temari tore her gaze from Sakura to greet her friend.

"Hey," Tenten replied, looking at the group. One look at her showed that right now she really wanted to get away from this situation.

Temari looked back at Sakura, "We need to talk to you."

Sakura sighed and shut her eyes; this was not going to be pretty. Then she opened her eyes and crossed her arms on her chest. "I'm listening."

"We saw you yesterday with Leyna." Naruto burst out.

"Yes, I'm aware of that." she replied slowly.

"Sakura you can't hang out with her anymore." Temari told her.

"She is out casted by us." Neji explained, leaning back on a car, "It would be considered an insult to us if you hung out with her."

Sakura frowned and glared at them. She looked at all of them. Everyone, even Naruto seemed firm on this. The only one who looked slightly hesitant was Hinata, but that was probably just because of her nature. Her gaze went to Gaara. Even though he hadn't said anything, one look at him told enough about his opinion. He stood near the middle, looking down at her, as if she was a child that needed to learn not to steal from the cookie jar. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Leyna looking at her anxiously.

"I don't care." She replied. Sometimes she hated her 'have to do the right thing' attitude. And this was one of those times. She would really like to just say 'alright' and keep hanging out with them with no problems. But her stupid conscience wouldn't let her. So for now she had to just go with it. "If you don't like her that's your problem. But I'm not going to stop hanging out with one of my friends just because you guys have some issue with her. See ya."

She began to walk away, knowing that she could probably no longer be friends with any of them anymore. The looks on their faces varied from hard to surprised. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, if you hang out with Leyna you're out of the group." Temari's voice added in.

Sakura turned around, "Yes I established that." She turned back and resumed walking away. The last person she looked at in the group was Tenten. She made her thoughts evident in her expression, "Why didn't you help me?" Tenten just looked from Sakura to the group, as if confused and uncertain. So apparently she was alone on this. Great.

She continued walking and refusing to look back until she made it to Leyna's group. When she arrived there Leyna looked at her gratefully. "Thanks for doing that."

Suddenly all the bad feelings the pink haired female had for leaving Gaara's group left. In fact now she was almost feeling guilty for having such feelings. "Don't worry about it." She assured her friend.

Leyna then proceeded to introduce Sakura to her group of friends: Kiya, Daichi the only male of the group, Amora, and of course Nami. It turned out that Amora was actually in her third class. So Sakura wasn't going to have to be alone in any of them.

When the bell rang for first block to begin Sakura walked in with Nami. They sat down on the far side of the classroom where there were a few desks around them that seemed to stay vacant. She noticed a few looks as she sat down. There were traitorous looks from Gaara's group, and surprised looks from Sasuke's. For a while neither girl spoke to each other, but then Nami turned to look at her. "I need to get a few things straight with you."

"Ok..." Sakura replied.

"First, don't think just because you made a big episode in the parking lot that you're automatically 'in' with us. Leyna might be overjoyed to have you with us, but not all of us are that accepting. That leads into my second point. You have to actually stay with us. Don't hang with us for a little while then go crawling back to Gaara's group the second they want you back. And do not pity us. Just because we're not part of the gangs does not mean that we're lower than anyone else. Got it?"

Sakura nodded, kind of irritated that Nami was questioning her like this. "Just to let you know, I did not plan on crawling back to Gaara's group, I don't have any intention of going back. I do not pity you. As for the first thing you said, I didn't think about it, but it does make sense now that I have."

"So you _do_ realize that most of the school is going to hate you know right?" Nami's harsh and commanding tone continued.

"That I realized instantly," Sakura replied, her tone of annoyance beginning to match Nami's. "Anything else you want to update me on?"

"Just one more thing. Why exactly do you want to part of our group?" With this sentence Nami gave her a questioning and demanding look.

"Because I'm friends with Leyna and wish to remain that way. And yes I would like to befriend you and the others as well. Even if it means becoming an outcast and being interrogated by you." She didn't mean to add that last part, but her temper was beginning to flare up. She didn't like the way Nami seemed to act like she couldn't be trusted.

To her surprise Nami grinned. "I like people with backbone. And your reason seems good enough, even though that doesn't mean I'm letting you into my good graces instantly. I won't question you any further."

Sakura was about to comment but then Nami put her iPod headphones in her ear and took out a sketchbook and focused on drawing inside of it. So Sakura took that as a sign to do something else. So she retrieved her own iPod and began to play a game on it. She was pretty into it. Well at least she was until she felt something hit her back. At first she thought she was imagining it but she turned down the volume on her iPod just in case. She heard Ino and a few other people from Sasuke's group making comments about how Gaara's group must have thrown her out and now she was desperate or something. Then she heard them laugh about how Nami was trying to get Sakura to go over to the dark side. And that Nami's mother must be so ashamed to see her daughter dressed like that. That kind of confused Sakura. Sure Nami had black hair and a darker style of clothes; she didn't think that Nami was Goth or anything. She saw a wad of paper whizz by, except this time it hit Nami. "Just ignore them." Nami mumbled to Sakura, obviously annoyed with what was going on. "They'll stop eventually."

Sakura paused for a moment, and then announced "No, I won't ignore them." She took her iPod out of her ears then turned around quickly enough to catch the next wad of paper coming at them. She threw it back at them and started talking to them. "First Ino, it was me who ditched them. Secondly I wouldn't be talking about someone else's style choices. For one thing that dress you're wearing was in style three years ago, and putting a belt on it won't actually help you all that much. And brunette girl beside Ino, I remember seeing that exact outfit in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. So shut up."

The whole group of girls were silent and surprised, especially Ino, who was wide eyed. Sakura took that as a good sign and turned around in her seat. When she looked over at Nami she saw that she too was a little bit in shock. "What? Sakura asked quietly.

"...That was awesome!" Nami exclaimed quietly.

After that the teacher walked in and began their lesson. The rest of the morning they didn't say very much to each other, but did occasionally have a short conversation. Sakura could tell that even though Nami really liked what Sakura did with that group of girls, she was still trying to see if she should befriend the pinkette or not.

At lunch Sakura went over with Nami and they began to walk outside the school. Sakura was confused and began to look around but didn't say anything. They continued walking until they reached a silver beat up car. Nami took out keys from her pocket and unlocked it. Then she opened the driver's door and looked over to Sakura. "Hop in."

Sakura nodded and opened the passenger seat of the car and went in. When they got in she asked Nami "So where are we going exactly?"

"To the mall." Nami replied absentmindedly, turning the keys into the ignition. "We always go there for lunch." Then the black haired rebel pumped up the music so that it was almost deafening and proceeded to drive away from the school. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel along to the metal music as she sped all the way to the mall. Then she parked close to the large building, turned off the ignition, took the keys and got out, Sakura soon followed. As they walked away Nami lifted her hand with the keys and pressed the 'lock' button. The car beeped in response.

The mall entrance they were closest to was the entrance to the food court (obviously planned out). So they walked directly into the food court and sat down at a table with the others. "Hey," Leyna greeted them. The others nodded in response. "Anything fun happen in lunch today?"

Nami and Sakura looked and each other and shook their heads. "Not really." Sakura replied. Over the course of the lunch Sakura began to know more about the close group of people and vice versa. Like how Kiya, Daichi and Amora were trying to figure out if they should befriend Sakura, although they weren't as up front about it as Nami was.

As Sakura and Nami drove back Sakura thought she made headway with them. They seemed to be more accepting towards her, and she began to learn more about them. All of them seemed to have their own distinct personalities; Nami was the obvious pessimistic rebel of the group, Kiya was the artistic one who always had to have a notebook with her in case she had an impulse to write down a poem, Amora, the know it all who actually got better marks then Sakura did (Amora seemed to be quite proud of that), Daichi who was the only one who wasn't completely outs casted like everyone else. That was due to two factors: his ability to be outstanding in whatever athletic event he tried, and his movie star good looks. The other girls seemed to like joking that if sports didn't work out for him, he could always be a male model. Lastly, there was Leyna. This really surprised Sakura. It turns out that Leyna was not the shy nervous girl Sakura first thought she was, but in the group she was actually the bubbly one. Once she actually got really comfortable around someone she was outgoing.

They made it into the parking lot before the first bell rang. As they pulled in Sakura caught sight of Gaara and a girl on his lap. By the looks of it she was Mizuki. So _that's_ who he was dating. But judging by the way he was acting he didn't seem too interested in her, even though she seemed really into him. That thought made Sakura blink. Why did she care about the person he dated? It wasn't like she was friends with him anymore.

She forced her eyes away from the couple and walked into the school. After speed walking to her locker to retrieve her gym clothes and keeping the same pace into the gym she managed to arrive on time. As she walked into the change room she heard the whispers she had heard throughout the morning about her not being in Gaara's group anymore. She bit her tongue in order to not lash out at them, even though she did glance at them. She switched her attention and searched for Amora. Looking around for a few moments, she found the girl near the very back of the room with a rather annoyed look on her face. Sakura walked up to her. "What's up?" she asked.

Amora shook her head, "Nothing, I just hate gym class. It is an incredibly waste of energy that could be applied to other, more important, endeavours."

Sakura paused for a moment, not knowing how to reply to that. So she settled on saying. "Ouch." Then she dumped her change of gym clothes on the bench beside her and began to take off her shirt.

"What are doing?" Amora exclaimed.

Sakura stopped and gave her a weird look. "Changing, it's a change room. That's kind of what you do."

"Not in front of me you don't!" Amora replied. "I change in the bathroom so that I don't have to see people's unclothed bodies. The only reason I'm still here is so that I can put the regular clothes here."

"Ok, I'll change somewhere else in the room then." Sakura took her clothes and began to walk to a different part of the room.

Amora stopped her. "No it's fine. I'm about to leave anyways." She hurriedly walked out of the change room. Some people that had been eavesdropping on their conversation giggled. Sakura stopped them with a challenging glare. As she did she noticed Hinata looking at her. Somehow she had an urge to smile at the girl, but quickly reminded herself that they were no longer friends. She quickly turned away and began changing.

Soon she finished and went out to the gym, quickly taking her place beside Amora. "Sorry about what happened in there." She apologized.

Amora waved her hand, seeming calm about the ordeal. "They usually giggle about me for one reason or another."

"Alright." Sakura smiled uneasily, feeling glad that she was alright, but bad for how her new friend was treated.

Just then Gai walked in and she heard Amora mumble, "Let the torture begin."

Gym passed relatively quickly for Sakura, but she could tell that for Amora, it felt a lot longer. The girl seemed to have little to no physical abilities (or hand eye coordination) and an abundance of clumsiness. For this reason (and the obvious other reason) almost everyone else in the class seemed to avoid including her in any of the activities. They seemed to do the same with Sakura. It felt strange for her. Usually even if she wasn't popular she was good enough in gym for people to include her. Heck she was usually the one including other people. She hadn't felt left out quite like this before.

Her next class wasn't much different from the others. She walked in and automatically started hearing people talk about her. This time she didn't even bother to look at them, but she couldn't bring herself to ignore them. She just gritted her teeth and tried to bear it. The one good thing was that Leyna seemed happy to see her. Leyna noticed Sakura's discomfort and quickly told her cheerfully, "Don't worry; they'll just ignore you eventually. At least that's how it is with me."

Sakura was going to comment but right before that their teacher walked in and gave them their assignment. So she waited until after he gave it. "I hope your right." She replied to Leyna.

"Same. Although for you, I guess it might be different seeing as you used to be one of them. Even if it was just for a little while. And I do feel sorry for you. I mean, you have to live with one of them." Leyna replied.

Sakura hadn't thought about that. What would Tenten be like? Sure Tenten was friends with them, but she and Tenten were stepsisters and that mattered more right? But the way Tenten looked when Sakura had looked at her this morning, like she was trapped in the middle, not sure who to give her alliance to. Would Tenten pick Gaara's group over her? That thought made Sakura feel sick. "Do you think this color of hair looks good on me?" Leyna asked, playing with a strand of black hair.

Sakura nodded, grateful to be able to take her mind off her stepsister. "Yeah."

"I'm thinking of changing it back. It used to white blonde before this." Leyna replied, looking at the strand. "It looks more natural."

"Well however you have it, blonde or black, it will look more natural than mine." Sakura pointed to her own pink hair. The two laughed.

With Leyna's help Sakura was able to keep her mind off Tenten and everything else that happened during the day. But afterwards, her mind drifted back to it. After a quick decision she decided to walk home, and quickly told Tenten it then left before the brunette could respond.

She chose to take a long way back, through a walkway that was surrounded by trees and rarely used by others. Thinking about the day's events, she almost felt like crying. She had never been a true outcast before. Yes her hair color made people sometimes think of her as freakish, but she had never been a complete outsider before. To know people were spreading rumours about you, making fun of you wherever you went. To put it simply, it sucked, she hated it. But it wasn't like she could do anything about it, she chose to be where she was, and doubted she could, or would, go back to the way it was before. Her usual tactics of dealing with people she didn't like weren't going to work her. Intimidation wouldn't work unless it was just one on one, she couldn't fight the entire school, she was stuck with this.

Yes she had new friends, and for that she was grateful. But the hurt she felt overpowered that gratefulness. Especially knowing that her own step-sister might have joined the people that made her an outsider. She felt powerless for not being able to change it, weak for knowing this, crushed for knowing her old friends betrayed her for the simple reason of her making a new friend, pathetic knowing that the majority of the school would now mock her for being an outcast, and a thousand other bad things.

A tear slipped down her cheek. What had she gotten herself into? She paused and wiped the tear away before continuing her walk home. She didn't notice a redhead that had stopped to watch her.


	7. it only seems to get worse

Sakura sighed as she brought up a lazy hand to shut off her alarm clock. The pinkette was not looking forward to school. It had been a full month since she had left Gaara's group, and ever since the beginning of that month she had felt like this every morning. And she would probably continue to feel like this every single morning until graduation. Oh joy.

After forcing herself through her daily morning ritual of showering, putting on fresh clothes and brushing her hair, she exited the bathroom only to stop herself when she was out of the room. The girl gazed down at her clothing and began to judge her outfit. A simple old t-shirt and worn out jean combo. It was the same type of outfit that she had worn for the past two years.

Although Sakura's number one priority was not fashion, it would be nice to wear outfits that had a better reflection of her personal style. She had first started to dress like a messy tomboy when she began to live with Tenten. She knew that the brunette had a high disregard of fashion so the pinkette had changed her wardrobe in order for Tenten to feel more comfortable around her.

But today was a good time for a change. It would also be nice to do something with her hair that involved more than just brushing it.

Her gaze drifted up to the clock. It looked like she had just enough time to change and do her hair. Nice. After a quick glance at her closet she selected a few items then returned to the bathroom. The clothes that she chose would do for now, but she would really need to hit the mall over the weekend.

Forty minutes later the makeover was complete. For the past two years her outfits were made up old jeans and t-shirts, or perhaps a sweater when she was cold. Now she was sporting an outfit that looked like it came out of a fashion magazine. She had transformed her straight hair into waves. The pinkette was even able to squeeze in a little mascara and lip gloss.

Before she left the bathroom she took a quick look at herself and smiled. Much better. Sakura was about to walk out of her room when she decided that her book bag needed to change as well. Fortunately a friend of hers from one of her old schools had bought her a purse for her birthday.

So after placing the contents of her book bag into the purse the girl decided that she was finally ready. So she walked down the stairs into the kitchen.

Tenten was already down there. After Sakura had made her official leave from one of the so called 'popular groups' the brunette found herself in a conflict between supporting her step sister or her new friends. The pinkette didn't like to see Tenten troubled, so she decided to help the girl out by telling her that as long as they remained friends at home, when they were in public together Tenten could act like she was ignoring Sakura.

The brunette gave Sakura a look of surprise when she saw the girl's outfit.

The pinkette smiled. "I decided that it was time for a change."

For a moment Tenten looked like she was too surprised to say anything but after a while she looked up to Sakura's gaze and said. "I can't say that I like it. But I guess if you do want to look like that then it's your choice."

Sakura just rolled her eyes and grinned, knowing that that was the closest thing to a compliment she was going to get from the self proclaimed 'hater of all things girly'. "Well thank you."

The two ate breakfast as they talked about how Tenten was getting better at jump shots until it was time to leave for school.

Ever since a month ago they never went to school together. One day Sakura would take the truck and Tenten would walk or skateboard. The next day the alternated. Neither of them knew what they were going to do next year when it would snow in the winter and they wouldn't be able to walk. But for now, they stuck to their schedule.

Today it was Sakura's turn for the truck, which was fortunate because she had to take two binders and a large textbook home the day before and it was annoying to have to carry the excess luggage while she was walking. So she put her purse and school things on the seat beside her as she started up the truck and pulled out of the drive way.

She arrived at the school ten minutes later. When she had her books and purse in hand she stepped out of her vehicle. Heads turned as she strutted out the parking lot. Her new look had boosted her confidence level and the fact that almost half the student population of the school was now gaping at her helped to rise it even more.

Even though she knew that it was conceited, she enjoyed the fact that she could get that reaction out of people, especially considering her current popularity status. So she did a model walk until she walked up to where Leyna and her other amigos were.

Nami was the first one to comment. "What's with the new look?"

Sakura shrugged. "I decided it was time for a change."

"Well, it shows." Nami commented while gazing at the people who still had shocked looks on their faces. "And apparently we're not the only ones who noticed; even Ino's staring at you. Judging by how people are looking at you, you'll be the main centre of gossip for the day. Maybe even for the week if you're lucky. Unfortunately this means that unless I want to hear about you all day, I'll have to listen to my iPod the entire time. Thanks for that."

Sakura laughed. "Way to look on the positive side of things."

Nami shrugged. "It's what I'm here for."

Sakura received a similar reaction to the one she received in the parking lot when she walked into her classroom by everyone that hadn't seen her in the parking lot. Once again it put a smirk on her face. Might as well enjoy the attention while it lasted. By ten minutes after the bell everyone on campus heard about Sakura's miraculous transformation.

At first it was good. Girls would look at her in disbelief and boys would gape at her when they thought their friends weren't looking. Then after a while it began to change.

Gossip began to run rapid as people tried to turn her new appearance into another reason to outcast her. At first people said things like "Well at least she looks normal now, she looked like a stupid trucker girl before." Then it turned into "She is so copying my style" and "What does that b**** think she's going to accomplish by looking like that?"

By the time that she was sitting with Leyna for chemistry she was starting to regret the change. "Don't worry," Leyna assured her. "At least this time people are only talking like that because they're jealous."

"I know," Sakura replied with her head down on her desk. "But it was just starting to die down. Yesterday I was starting to think that they were getting bored with me. And now I made it start all over again. I really should have thought this through."

"They will stop, eventually." Leyna assured her. "It's just going to take longer then what you thought. Besides, you look good. If you like how you look then it shouldn't matter what they say about it."

But she wanted it to stop now! However, as much as she wanted it to end, there wasn't much that she could do about it. So she lifted her head and gave Leyna a small smile. "I guess you're right."

Sakura was grateful when the final bell rang. Not only was the school day over but it was also Friday, meaning that she had an entire weekend away from this hellhole. Since she did have the truck that day she decided to go straight to the mall for some much needed shopping. Leyna was also going to accompany her since the girl wanted to go back her original blond hair color.

But before she took off with her friend, she decided to call Tenten to see if the brunette needed the truck for anything first.

Tenten answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

Sakura relayed the question, and then waited for an answer. "I don't need it for anything tonight." Tenten replied. "Oh, and I also have a big favour to ask you. You know our little _agreement_?"

"Yes." Sakura replied hesitantly, feeling a bad feeling rise in her chest. Leyna, who was in the passenger seat, looked over with concern.

"I was hoping that I could make an exception for the night." Tenten explained. "You see, me and the gang wanted to have a sleep over, at our house."

The pinkette's gaze fell and a few tears nearly sprouted in her eyes when she realized what Tenten was asking for. Even though they're agreement was that at home Tenten acted normally towards her, Tenten wanted people over that night so to not ruin her reputation she wanted to able to ignore Sakura at home. Her own step sister wanted permission to ignore her in her own home. Did Tenten realize how disgusting she sounded? Probably not. But even if Tenten didn't realize exactly how mean she sounded, didn't she realize that it would hurt Sakura?

Despite the fact that she wanted to say no, that she shouldn't have to feel like an outcast in her own home and that Tenten should feel ashamed for making such a request, the pinkette's guilty conscience was still pushing for her to say yes to the brunette's request.

"What's wrong?"Leyna mouthed after seeing the look on Sakura's face. Sakura told Tenten to wait, and then held her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone as she explained the situation to Leyna.

"Well," Leyna replied sympathetically. "If you want, you could stay at my house tonight."

Sakura smiled gratefully. "Thank you. Did I tell you how awesome you are today?" Then she placed the phone back on her ear and told Tenten. "I'm not going to come home tonight so yes, just please don't make it a regular thing. Oh, and make sure that no one goes in my room. I don't want to get home to find it trashed or find out that people hooked up on my bed."

"Thanks Sakura!" Tenten exclaimed. "See you tomorrow then."

With that finished the two went to the mall and Sakura tried the memory of what had just happened to the back of her mind.

Even though school had only finished minutes before the mall was already full of teens ready to spend their money on the latest fashions. Sakura thought that it was kind of funny that, even though she was in a different clique as many of them, she was there to do the same.

After they hit a few stores and had bought bags full of clothes they went into one of the mall's hair salons so Leyna could become a blond again. Since the area where Leyna was getting her hair done was too far for Sakura to be able to hold a conversation with the girl, the pinkette slipped out of the salon with the intention of returning when Leyna's hair was finished.

As Sakura walked through the mall a sign on a store's window caught her eye. She walked closer to it and saw that it was a help wanted sign. And although Sakura wasn't currently in desperate need of money she found herself contemplating working there.

It was a clothing store that the pinkette liked. And she would like to get discounts there. Plus the extra money wouldn't hurt. Ah hey what the heck. She walked into the store and asked for an application. The girl at the front desk gave her a quick glance, as if deciding whether or not Sakura was worthy enough to work with her. Apparently the pinkette passed the test because the girl gave a genuine smile and handed her an application.

Sakura went into the food court to fill it out. The weird thing was that it said on the top that a résumé wasn't required. After a moment of thought she decided that that was because the manager probably didn't feel like reading both the application and a résumé. Besides, the application already asked everything that would be on a résumé anyway.

When she was finished the application she gave it to the girl in the store then went back to see Leyna. The girl had been right: she did look better as blond. When Sakura was done gushing over the new hairdo the two finished shopping, hopped on Sakura's truck and drove off to Leyna's.

It turned out that Leyna's parents were alright with Sakura staying over as long she used her own toiletries. Although the pinkette didn't really care too much about going one night without brushing her teeth she decided to go home to get her toiletries anyways.

After all, just because Tenten's friends were there didn't mean that she was banned from going there. This could also be an opportunity to show that she would not be pushed around in her own home. Gaara and his gang could treat her however they wanted at school but her house was her domain and she was going to show it.

So she quickly drove over to her house. Although the blond had been hesitant at first, Sakura convinced Leyna to accompany here there. After all, if Tenten could bring friends over to the house, why couldn't Sakura?

They pulled into the driveway and the two got out and walked towards the house. As soon as she opened the front door the pinkette heard the group. Even though there was music blaring from the living room, Sakura could hear them talking loudly. And for a moment she actually became nervous. Then she mentally slapped herself for it almost instantly afterwards. This was her house too. She shouldn't have to feel nervous about going inside of it.

So she and Leyna walked in together. Unfortunately in order to get to Sakura's room and bathroom you had to go through the living room. That meant walking by everyone. So the pinkette took a small breath to prepare herself, then she and Leyna walked into the living room.

There they all were: Naruto was beside the table nearly inhaling a bowl of chips, Hinata appeared to be working up the nerve to talk to him, Tenten and Neji were sparring in the middle of the room (fortunately they had cleared a space so that as long as they didn't move away from their current location they wouldn't hit anything), Shikamaru was on the couch looking lazily at the tv. The only main member not present was Gaara.

As soon as she and Leyna walked into the living room it went silent. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at them. It was like they were back at school. Sakura felt her stomach lurch and she began to seriously regret coming. So much for 'taking a stand' and showing that she wouldn't be affected by them in her own home.

The pair was almost out of the living room when Tenten called out to her. "Sakura, can I talk to you?" It was more of a demand then a question and the brunette walked up to Sakura as they exited the room.

"C-can I go back to the truck?" Leyna asked quickly. Sakura sighed, wishing she could do the same, and then handed the keys over to her friend. Then the blond took them and scrambled back to the vehicle as quickly as her feet could take her.

Sakura and Tenten then walked to Sakura's bedroom. The pinkette turned to face her step sister. "Yes?"

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Tenten asked. "You said that you were going to be gone tonight!"

"I did," Sakura replied. "But I needed to come back to get a few things."

"Well...you could have told me." Tenten said hastily. "Then I could have taken everything you needed and left them on the front step so you wouldn't have to come in."

"Are you really that ashamed of me?" The pinkette asked in disbelief. "You would really do all that just to make sure that your new little group of friends wouldn't see me?"

Tenten paused for a moment, and then shook her head. "Don't try to make me look like the bad guy! If anything, you should feel bad. You knew that the group is important to me. And yet you still came over here with your little friend-

"Just because you have people over does not mean that I'm forbidden to come." Sakura's temper was rising. "This is my house just as much as it is yours. And as for bringing my friend with me, if you can have people come over here so can I."

"But I called you first." Tenten put in. "I asked you if it was alright. You just dropped in without any notice."

"I didn't think it would be a problem. We were just coming here for like two seconds. I didn't think I'd have to book an appointment just to come and get a fricken toothbrush."

Sakura felt like if she was going to blow up if they continued talking any longer so she marched into the bathroom to retrieve her tooth and hairbrush. Then she went in her room, grabbed a pair of pyjamas then was about to leave the room before she thought doing of something else. Something that she hadn't thought doing of in a long time.

She went over to her dresser and grabbed a key. Because the key hadn't been used in a significant amount of time there was a layer of dust on it. Sakura blew the dust off as she exited her room, shut her door and locked the room with the key.

Tenten was still there, leaning against the door frame. Sakura looked at her, pocketed the key, and left without saying another word. She hadn't locked that door in an extremely long time. And even though she really didn't have to worry about someone entering it, she now locked it anyways. She wanted to show that Tenten was unwelcome inside it. Just like Tenten made her feel unwelcome in her own home. She wanted Tenten to feel hurt just like she had been hurt.

As Sakura walked out of the house the anger that she had felt gradually morphed into hurt. Now that she thought about it, Tenten was right. She should have just called so that the brunette could have left the stuff by the front of the house. Then she wouldn't have had to gone through that.

She was even regretting locking the door. Sure the way Tenten was acting was bad. But she did something worse. By locking the door she openly stated that she didn't trust Tenten anymore. And that was a complete lie.

For a moment Sakura considered going back and apologizing. But she decided against it immediately afterwards. Tenten probably didn't want to see her and she didn't want to make things worse by showing up again. So she walked to the driver's side of the truck and hopped in.

Leyna looked away from the window and gave a concerned expression to Sakura. "Are you ok?"

Sakura shook her head. "No." A sigh escaped her lips. "But I'll get over it. Eventually." Another sigh escaped her lips as her gaze turned to Leyna. "I'm sorry that I made you go through that."

It was the blonde's turn to shake her head. "You didn't mean for that to happen."

"But I knew that it was probably going to happen. But I went through it anyways. I had this idea that I needed to 'fight the power' or something. Or that I needed to prove something. I don't know." Sakura looked at Leyna apologetically. "And I'm sorry that I dragged you into it."

Leyna offered a half smile. "Sakura it's ok, really. I'm used to getting that reaction. I actually feel sorrier for you." Her eyes lingered on the house. "If they keep coming over you can probably keep coming back to my house."

Sakura forced a smile. As much as she didn't like her current situation she didn't want her friend to feel like she was using her. "Thanks but I don't want to use you."

"You're wouldn't be using me though." Leyna insisted. But Sakura had a stubborn glint in her eyes that told Leyna that she wouldn't agree to it. So the blond said. "Fine have it your way. But the offer's still open if you want it." Then she asked. "So if you don't keep coming over to my house, what are you going to do about it?"

Sakura sighed and looked back at the house. "I don't know."

**Hope everyone like the chapter. In case you're wondering why I didn't put Sakura's outfit in it was because of two reasons: One is that I know some people find it annoying when you go in detail about what clothes a person is wearing. The second is that so people could picture her in an outfit that they would like. I mean, what I think is a good outfit might be what other people consider to be trashy or bad. So this way people can see her in an outfit that would look good to them.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of it. **


	8. her spot

Sakura walked with a spring in her step towards her workplace. Apparently her application had looked good, because a few days after she gave it, the pinkette received a call from the store, named Matties, saying that they wanted to give her an interview. So she agreed and did the interview as best she could and tried to give good answers. Four days after the interview, they hired her.

The pinkette had been working there for just over a week and had already begun to really enjoy working there. It was fun for her to help customers pick out outfits and there was always something to do in case she got bored. Her liking for fashion also helped. The store was like her home away from home. Especially because her real home was feeling somewhat hostile.

Sakura had apologized to Tenten the day after the sleepover with Lena and since then the two had attempted to make amends. And for the most part, they had repaired their friendship. But the memory of that night still hung around the house like a dark cloud. And Tenten didn't seem to think that her actions were wrong in any way. Sure Sakura knew that what happened that Friday was partly her own fault but she didn't believe that she was the only one to blame. However, since the pinkette did not like to quarrel with the brunette, or really anyone for that matter, she left this belief to herself.

Her smile grew as she walked into the store. As she walked through the entrance she dug her nametag out of her pocket and placed it on her shirt. Now she just needed to see Trisha, the store supervisor, who was the one that Sakura had given her application to, to see what her first task would be.

After looking around for a few moments, Sakura spotted the blonde near the front desk. She then strutted over there and was about to greet the supervisor when she heard a familiar voice, "What is _she_ doing here?" Sakura whipped her head around to see Ino, who was also wearing a name tag, glaring daggers into her.

"Do you work here?" Sakura asked, hoping-no praying- that the answer would be no.

"Yep, for six months. I took last week off because I was sick." Ino said, continuing to glare at the pinkette while she spoke. Sakuras eyes' widened. Ino worked here too? Suddenly Sakura's liking of the job went down significantly.

"Obviously she's like, working here Ino." Said Trisha in a bored tone. She was looking down at some sort of chart.

"But I work here." Ino said. "And I can't stand her. So you need to fire her. She'll probably ruin the store with all of her grossness."

"Ino, she's a good worker and she actually enjoys coming here." Trisha's eyes were still down on the chart. "So you're just going to have to like, chill." Sakura had to lift her hand up to hide a small smile.

Ino's eyes opened slightly in disbelief. "But-"

"Just deal with it." Trisha cut her off. With a wave of her hand she dismissed the other blond. "There's like a gigantic pile of sweaters over near the change rooms. Go like, fold them. Hmm, it's pretty humungous. Sakura, go with her. Think of it as like, group bonding or something."

The two girls groaned and glared at each other as they made their way to the sweater pile. _Why does Ino have to work here?_ Sakura wined mentally. Things were going so good.

They both went to the pile and then went to the opposite side of the sweaters, determined to stay as far away from the other as possible. This worked for a while and each girl managed to ignore the other's existence. But obviously, once they were done the sweaters on the outside they had to work inwards. So Sakura positioned herself at the front of the pile and Ino went to the back. The two faced each other. "Do you have some sick need to ruin my workplace?" Ino asked as she folded a sweater, refusing to look up from her task.

"Not at all." Sakura replied. "As I thought you could figure out before, I didn't know that you worked here. If I did, I wouldn't have applied here at all."

"Well now you know. So quit." Ino snarled, now looking at Sakura.

Sakura shook her head. "I like it here, even though I now know that you work in the store too. I don't want to give up working here just because you wish for it. Why do you want me gone so badly anyways?"

"Because I really don't like you, duh. I want to see you as little as possible. But obviously, that's not going to happen if you work here." Ino said, glaring at the pinkette as she did so.

Sakura glared back. "The feeling's mutual. But I'm not leaving and since you're probably not going to either you-we-." She corrected herself. "Will just have to learn to put up with each other."

Ino was about to retort, but after receiving Sakura's hard look she realized that the pinkette was not going to back down. So the blond groaned loudly. "Fine. But stay out of my way."

"As long as you stay out of mine." Sakura said.

The two didn't speak to each other for the remainder of Sakura's shift. After they hurriedly finished folding the sweaters, Ino worked at the change rooms while Sakura folded clothes and helped customers. Fortunately this set up allowed them to see as little of each other as possible.

Her shift went by relatively fast and soon Sakura found herself stomping out of the mall and towards her vehicle. This was so not fair. First the school, then her home, and now her workplace. Was she going to end up hating everywhere she went? Once in her vehicle she was about to turn the keys to turn the truck on but then stopped herself. Usually at this time she would head home but because of what had taken place at work she wasn't in the mood to do so. So she decided to take a drive and blare her music instead until she felt better.

After making her way through the high uptown traffic the pinkette decided to go drive around residential areas, turning her music down slightly as she did so in case a kid who never heard any profanities before was playing outside. As she was driving close to a park she spotted a road leading to a small stop at a manmade lake. She made a split second decision and drove towards it.

Upon arriving at the lake she parked her car in a nearby stall and walked out of her vehicle, slamming the door behind her. She wasn't even that close to the lake yet but just by glancing over to it Sakura saw that it was pretty. The sunshine made the water sparkle and the slight breeze created waves, giving the body of water a picture perfect look. And the closer she walked towards it, the more the angry girl liked the lake.

Once Sakura was as close as she could go to the lake she was about to sit down at a nearby bench when something caught her eye. There was a small path in the nearby trees. Driven by curiosity, the pinkette decided to follow it. At first the path was clear but after a while she had to walk past some shrubs and low branches that made the walk more difficult and a few times Sakura had wanted to just give up and walk back. But upon reaching the end of the trail, Sakura soon decided that the difficulty was worth it.

The path had led to a small clearing, probably only enough room for about four or five people. It was situated near the shore line and gave a much better view of the lake then the place near the parking lot. To top it off, the nearby trees had branches outstretched over the area, providing some shade from the sun.

Sakura walked into the clearing at sat down on the grass. The breeze tickled her face and she could hear the soothing chirping of birds in the distance. She immediately felt her mood brighten and suddenly the fact that she was now working with the evil blond didn't seem as bad as it had earlier.

The girl didn't know how long she sat in the clearing for. Perhaps a few minutes, maybe even an hour. But the length of her stay was irrelevant to Sakura. To her the important fact was that when she left, she felt a whole lot better than when she arrived. She rather liked that spot, and planned to return to it soon. A smile was on her face as she drove away from the lake. Now that her home was occasionally being invaded by Tenten's friends, she now had a place to go to calm herself down. A place where she didn't have to worry about anyone hurting her or frustrating her. It was her place.


	9. Strange bonding

**Hey everyone! No you are not imagining this I am actually updating. Sorry it's taken so long, uni life has been crazy busy so far. I wrote this and edited it when I was tired and do not really have time to look at it later so I apologize if this looks like shit. Enjoy. Please tell me your thoughts on it when you're done reading.**

* * *

"Tenten do you know where my bracelet went?" Sakura asked, looking around the living room as she did so.

"Why?" Tenten asked hesitantly, holding her basketball that she had previously been tossing back and forth between her hands.

"Because I noticed that it wasn't on dresser." The pinkette replied as she glanced under the couch.

"Well…I was getting the laundry out of your room and I saw it and decided to throw it out." Tenten admitted slowly.

Sakura's head shot up. "You did what?"

"You never wear it. And I thought you never would and that it would always only just take up space." The brunette shrugged. "So I thought that I might as well chuck it."

"I was actually going to wear it today thank you very much." Sakura countered, getting up from the floor. "Besides, couldn't you have at least asked me before throwing it out?"

"I didn't think that there was a need to." Tenten replied, putting her hands on her hips in defense. The ball dropped to the floor, unnoticed by both females. "Why does the stupid bracelet mean so much to you anyways?"

"Because it was a gift to me and I liked it." Sakura spat back. "And you thoughtlessly threw it out without even thinking about whether I still wanted it or not." By now both girls were getting angry.

"Well sorry." Tenten said with her voice slightly raised. She marched off to the garage and quickly returned with the bracelet. "Here you go." She chucked it at Sakura.

The pinkette caught it. "Thanks." Then she walked over to Tenten's basketball, picked it up, and tossed it in a nearby garbage bag.

"What the hell?" Tenten asked in disbelief.

"Oh I'm sorry." Sakura mocked. "I didn't think you needed it." The girl stomped away to wash off her accessory. Hopefully work would be better than this.

* * *

"Ino." Sakura spoke to the blond.

Said girl turned around and snapped back. "What?'

The pinkette held up a hand. "Calm down. I was just wondering where this is supposed to go." She motioned to the top she was holding.

"You really can't find it?" Ino sneered. "I knew where everything was after my fourth day here."

"Will you _please_ stop being a bitch and just tell me where it goes." Sakura's snapped. After realising what she said, the pinkette sighed and calmed down a little. "Sorry. Me and Tenten got in a fight and…wait, why am I telling you this?" She asked herself in disbelief.

"I don't know, because I really don't care about your pathetic life." Ino snickered. "Even if you and Miss should-have-been-a-dude duked it out." She stuck a finger out behind Sakura. "By the way, the shirt goes over there."

"Thanks." Sakura grumbled, walking over to the direction that Ino had pointed at.

"Excuse me," an impatient voice called out. Sakura turned to face a very annoyed looking girl. The girl was so loud that Ino also looked up to observe the scene.

"Yes, how can I help you?" Sakura asked.

The girl held up a pair of jean shorts. "These are too short!"

"Um, excuse me?" Sakura asked, unsure of what response to give.

The girl thrust the clothing in Sakura's face. "These shorts are too short! Look." She placed them in front of her waist. "They barely cover the middle of my thighs."

"Then…don't buy them?" Sakura replied, seriously not understanding why she was the one being told this. What could she possibly do about it?

'Oh, believe me, I won't," the girl assured her. "You and every other clothing store in this bloody country are on a mission to turn every girl into a whore! Well guess what lady? Your plan is _not_ going to work on me. I will not succumb to your horrendous attempts to slutify me. Good bye!" She threw down the shorts and proceeded to stomp out of the store.

Sakura stared at the entrance of the store for a few moments before a smile started to appear on her face. Before she knew it, she started laughing. She heard laughter from somewhere else and turned to see that Ino was laughing too. For a few moments, they continued to laugh. Then Ino looked over and they made eye contact. They both abruptly stopped their laughter and turned away from each other. Sakura picked up the shorts and walked away to put away her items.

The remainder of her shift went by relatively uneventful. Sakura unclipped her name tag. As far as shifts went, today was pretty good, she thought to herself. She usually preferred the Inoless ones, but today turned out to be decent. The funny situation definitely brightened up her day. In all fairness, it probably wasn't very nice to laugh at someone else's opinion, but the way that the girl had expressed her feelings on shorts was kind of hilarious.

The fact that Ino had laughed too was unexpected. The fact that both of them thought the girl was amusing was rather interesting. Nothing was probably going to come out of it, but it was interesting nonetheless.

"Bye Trisha," Sakura said as she started to walk away. Ino was also in the process of leaving.

"Hey wait. Like, both of you," Trisha called out. Both girls stopped and turned around. "That old fashioned chick that has something against shorts heard you too like, laughing at her and called management. I could really care less about it, but apparently the manager wants you two to give an apology to her. She's going to come by her tomorrow and you two have to give an apology to her, like together."

"What? Bu-" both of them started to protest.

Trisha held up her hand. "Like, get over it. See you tomorrow."

The girls sighed and left the store grumbling.

"This is so stupid." Sakura mumbled.

"Completely." Ino agreed. Sakura's head shot over to see the blond, shock evident in her eyes. Did Ino just agree with her? Ino gave her an exasperated look. "I just think the same thing. Geez Sakura, I don't have to like you to agree with you."

"Oh," Sakura replied. She almost felt kind of disappointed. Wait, why the heck would she feel disappointed? Just because Ino didn't like her enough to have a casual conversation with her did not mean that she had to feel bad about it. She didn't even like Ino. "Whatever." She told the blond, and then walked faster out the exit so that she didn't have see Ino anymore.

She continued to walk through the mall towards the parking lot. This is stupid, she thought angrily. She definitely did not want to be on close terms with Ino. Oh no, not at all. Who would want to hang out with that blond bimbo? These thoughts continued until she stepped out into the parking lot and was blasted with chilly night air.

The pinkette shivered and brought her arms up closer to her chest in an attempt to get warmer. Unfortunately Tenten was using the truck today so she was stuck walking home. Normally she didn't mind but it was cold tonight.

"Don't you have a truck?" Ino asked as she emerged from the mall.

Sakura looked back and shrugged. "Not today." For a split second, she hoped that Ino would offer her a ride.

"Sucks to be you then." Ino walked over to her car, went inside of it, and drove away. Sakura just scared in shock. Apparently she had hoped for too much. Ah well, better start walking.

She began to speed walk in the direction of her house. What did Tenten even need her vehicle for? Oh right, she had to run some kind of errand. Geez it was cold tonight. She was past the parking lot now and was crossing the street into the residential area. Why couldn't have the errand have been done on a different night? Like on Tuesday or sometime when she didn't work.

Just then a car pulled up beside her. The pinkette stopped and turned towards it. The passenger window rolled down and she saw Gaara in the driver's seat. "Do you want a ride?" he asked.

She looked at him in confusion. Wasn't he supposed to shun her? "Why are doing this?" she asked him.

"If you want a ride, get in. If not, then keep walking," he told her frankly.

Scared that he would drive away if she persisted with her question, she got in the car and sat down. He pulled away from the sidewalk and started driving along the road. "Where do you live?" he asked her.

He hadn't been over to her house before? "You don't know?" she asked him.

He looked over her and gave her a blank look. "Obviously."

"I'm sorry, I live at 49386, Burkin street," she explained. "I just thought that Tenten would have invited you over by now."

"She did," he explained. "I just chose not to go."

"Really? Why?"

He shrugged. "I don't usually spend that much time with them."

But he was their leader. "Why not?"

He glared at her. "Stop asking so many questions."

"Sorry," she replied, turning to look out the window. Come to think of it she had never seen him at her house before. But she had always figured that Tenten invited him over when she wasn't around. Why wouldn't he hang out a lot with his group? Especially when he was the head of it. He really made no sense.

Soon they pulled arrived at her house and they pulled into her driveway. She looked at him as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Thanks for driving me," Sakura told him. His response was a shrug, and she figured that that was probably the best response that she was going to get from him so she said goodbye and went out of the car and into her house. Then she took off her shoes and walked into the living room.

"Hey who's vehicle was that?" Tenten asked, not looking away from the tv.

Sakura knew that if she mentioned that it was Gaara Tenten would probably get confused and jealous and ask why Gaara came over to their house for Sakura and not for her. Sakura didn't really feel like getting into a debate or argument so she simply said, "Someone," and walked away before Tenten had an opportunity to reply.


	10. What was her's became their's

**Hey everyone! Done my first year of uni! Which means more updates (hopefully) for my fics on here. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Also, a quick note about this fic: it is Gaa/Saku, but that pairing is not going to happen for a while. Just putting it out there. **

* * *

"Ahhh," Ino groaned. "There are so many like other things I could be doing right now. Like shopping, or hanging out with my friends or hell, walking my neighbour's dog. Not that I would do that anyways. But yeesh, so many things I could be doing aside from this. Why couldn't that chick just chill and not freak out that she's too much of a prude to like shorts?"

"How would I know?" Sakura replied. The two were at Matties waiting for the girl that they had apparently offended the day before to arrive so that they could apologize. It was a load of bull in the pinkette's opinion. Matties always had clothes like that, and it was known for being a store with fashionable clothes for teenaged girls. If the girl didn't want to see shorts she shouldn't have come inside the store in the first place.

"Shut up, pinky." Ino snapped. "It's your fault we're here in the first place."

"Hey, you laughed too," Sakura pointed out. This was _not_ all her fault. "And the exact same thing would have happened if she came up to you."

"Psh," Ino waved it off. "Whatever." Oh, great comeback. The pinkette was about to retort but then the girl that had freaked at them before marched into the store.

"Ok girls," the girl spat out at them. "Start apologizing."

Sakura sighed. Playing nice and pretending that she gave a shit about the girl's issues was probably going to be the quickest way to deal with the girl. "We're sorry for your lack of fashion sen-" Ino began. Ok, not good, their problems would only increase if the blond continued to talk. Sakura's hand flew to Ino's mouth and covered it.

"We're sorry if we offended you in anyway." The pinkette told the girl, hoping that Ino wasn't too mad at her for blocking her voice. "We were acting very unprofessionally and we were wrong to laugh about your beliefs."

"Thank you," the girl replied. With her eyes narrowed, she added. "Although I doubt either of you meant it." The girl marched out of the room.

Sakura let out a small sigh of relief. At least that was over now. Thankfully the ordeal was actually quicker than the pinkette had expected. "What the hell?" Ino screeched. "Why'd you interrupt me?"

Seriously? Was it not horribly obvious? "If I had let you continue that girl would have just got more pissed off and offended and would bitch more to the managers."

Ino's eyes narrowed, but remained silent. Yeah take that! "Whatever."

The remainder of the shift went by relatively well. She and Ino continued to avoid each other, and there weren't any other customers with issues with their clothes. Aside from the apology, it was a normal shift and soon the girl found herself leaving the store with her purse as her work came to an end.

As she walked a girl from another clothing store from across the hall also emerged. The girl had a really nice bag; in fact it was one she had had her eye on for a while now. Just one more paycheck and she should have enough money for it. Of course, if she saved up she would more money for college…and that new phone.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice a wet spot on the floor and unceremoniously fell onto the floor. The girl with the cute bag began to laugh. "Wow, nice going there freak. So, weird hair and a klutz? What a combination."

"Hey leave her alone." That was Ino's voice. What the heck? Was Ino actually defending her? "She was probably too distracted by your ugliness to notice where she was going."

The girl glared, but could not seem to think of a satisfactory response. So she mumbled a 'whatever' and sashayed away.

Sakura got up off of the floor and turned to look at Ino. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Ino replied. "Seriously, don't. I don't like mocking people with excellent fashion, except for maybe you."

"Her purse was really nice…" Sakura replied softly in agreement. Ino nodded and walked away. It was only after the blonde left and Sakura was walking outside that the pinkette realized that Ino had given her a compliment.

Well that was definitely interesting. Maybe the blond wasn't so bad after all…ok she could be pretty bad. But maybe she had some sort of caring side in her.

"Sakura," a male voice called to her, stopping her train of thought. The pinkette looked over to see Sasuke. What did he want with her?

"Umm, hi?" She replied.

"I need you to do something for me," Sasuke explained. Oh she _needs _to does she? Before he gave her any time to respond, he explained, "You know how Uchihas excel at everything? Well, I'm not doing so great in English right now. Since you're at the top of the class I need you to tutor me in it."

And why should she do this? In case this guy hasn't noticed, she wasn't going to do absolutely anything for him just because he was good looking. Now Ino on the other hand, Ino would probably demand that he go out with her in return. The blond was pretty much in love with this guy and would love any time to spend with him. Hmm, well, Ino had been nice to her today. And it was the right thing to do…"I'll do it," Sakura replied, "on one condition."

"Yes?" Sasuke asked expectantly.

"Go on a date-"

"With you?" He cut her off and smirked as her looked her over. "Done."

"Not with me you idiot," she exclaimed.

He looked confused. "Then who?"

"Ino."

He paused and seemed to consider it for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Fine."

"Good. When do you want to meet up for it?" She asked.

He shrugged. "Do Tuesdays after school work for you?"

Tuesdays, Tuesdays, what did she have to do then? Well, she didn't work those days, and she usually didn't hang out with friends until it was closer to the weekend…"Works for me."

"Ok, see you then," he replied.

"See you later." With that, the two went their separate ways and Sakura continued her walk to the parking lot. Ok, she was Sasuke's official tutor. She didn't think he needed one, but then again she didn't know him that well. That was obviously going to change. Hopefully this would go well and she wouldn't regret her decision. At least he was good looking so even if he was going to be a douche she could have some eye candy. Ino had better be happy about this.

Oh! That's right; she should probably let Ino know about it. Now how could she do that? She didn't have the girl's cell phone number, and she didn't really want to go up to the blonde at school…Wait was that Ino over there?

Upon closer inspection Sakura realized that yes, Ino was in fact still at the parking lot. The blond appeared as if she just finished talking to someone on her phone and was now hanging up. The pinkette quickly decided to use the opportunity presented to her and ran up to the girl yelling, "Ino!"

The said girl whipped around with a confused expression on her face. "Yeah?"

"I got Sasuke to go on a date with you."

The first look on Ino's face was happiness and shock. "What? Really?" She squealed before her eyes narrowed and a frown set on her face. "Why should I believe you? I highly doubt that he would really do anything like that for you. Besides, why do that for me?"

"First off, I don't really have much to gain from lying to about it. And as for why he's doing it, I don't know if I should tell you, in case you decide to go and tell fifty of your closest friends."

"Well then I promise not to tell anyone," Ino retorted quickly.

Sakura studied her for a moment. Could she really trust the girl to keep the secret? Something inside her was telling her that she could. She decided to follow that part. After all, it wasn't even like she _had_ to keep it a secret anyway. "Sasuke's not doing so great in English right now. Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm being serious! Maybe he's doing decently but it's just not good enough for his families' standards or something?"

"Ok," Ino told her. "I'll believe you. But why did you do it for me?"

"Because," Sakura began, "First off, you've been nice to me, at times when you didn't have to be. I appreciate that. Also, I know how much you like him, sometimes it seems like it's all you talk about. And I knew that this would mean a lot to you."

Ino was silent for a moment before a smile grew on her face. "Thank you, forehead girl."

"What?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to the side as Ino climbed into her car.

Ino smiled, "it's my new name for you."

Oh really? Well if Ino had one for her, she should have one for Ino too. "Ok pig." Sakura retorted with a grin.

Ino only laughed. "See you later." With that the blonde shut her car door and drove away.

Sakura walked back to her truck. This was an interesting turn of events. Hopefully she wouldn't regret arranging a date between Sasuke and Ino. But hey, Ino loved Sasuke and Sasuke seemed to like anything boobs so it should work out just fine.

Fortunately she didn't really have anywhere that she needed to be, so she drove her truck in the direction of her spot. The girl had been going there more and more lately, almost to the point of it becoming a daily habit. It was easy for her to think there, a place for her to just sit and collect her thoughts.

Soon she had arrived at the desired area and was walking towards her spot. This was going to be so nice. She was going to sit down, and maybe there were be a nice breeze and…_whoa _there was someone else here. Aww dang it. Wait that person was a redhead. Was that Gaara? It is Gaara. What is he doing here?

At that moment the boy looked over and peered at her suspiciously. "What?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked. This was her spot damn it!

"Sitting."

No really? "Obviously," she replied.

"Why do you care so much?" He asked.

"Because I usually come and sit here," the pinkette explained. Hopefully he would leave. She didn't really have much against the guy, aside from the whole being part of the group that ditched her thing. But still she liked being alone here. And since she had come all the way out here, she didn't really want to leave.

"Well, I am here currently," he replied coolly.

Her eyes narrowed. It was obvious that he did not seem to plan on leaving any time soon. Fine then. She marched up towards the redhead and plopped down beside him. Gaara looked at her questioningly. She looked over at him and shrugged good naturedly. "It's not like we can't both be here at the same time right?"

He shrugged in reply and both of them turned their heads and looked towards the sky. It was a really nice day today. It was warm, sunny and just like the female had desired, there was a nice breeze.

She had initially just wanted to sit and think about things. But with Gaara out here, she was too curious about why he was here to focus on anything else. The pinkette turned to look at him. "So," she began. "Is this your first time out here?"

Jade eyes moved in her direction. "Why would it matter?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

Then there was silence. Just when she was about to give up on him ever replying, he spoke, "This is the first time I've come here."

"Ah." Sakura replied. "Any particular reason for coming out?"

He glanced at her. "Are you always this nosy?"

She blushed, "Umm, not always." She took that as a cue that he wanted silence and turned back to look at the clouds. She wasn't really offended by it. She knew already beforehand that he wasn't the most social person out there. Which was kind of weird considering the fact that he was a leader of a group. But hey, maybe it was one of those 'they liked him more than he liked them scenarios'. She leaned back and looked up at the sky.

The pair was quiet for a long time. "It's nice here," she commented absentmindedly after a while.

"Yes," Gaara agreed. "It is."

Her eyes shot over to him. That was surprising. She wasn't expecting him to actually reply to her. "What? Believe it or not I am capable of having conversations."

Ok, now he was just being mean, and she was not going to take it. Her eyes narrowed. "Is it always this easy for you to get snappy?"

"I could ask the same thing about your temper," he replied back smoothly, amusement evident in his eyes.

Ok, think of a comeback, think of a comeback…she had nothing. So the pinkette just resorted to sticking her tongue out at him and sharply moving her head so that she was facing a different direction. She could hear him chuckle and fought the urge to turn and glare at him.

They continued to sit in silence for a while longer. Sakura did not know how much time passed by. However, she really didn't care. Sitting here in the sunlight was rather pleasant and she had to admit, Gaara's presence was rather relaxing.

After a while Gaara silently stood up and walked away. Before he disappeared completely he looked down at Sakura and said, "I'll see you here later then." It seemed like more of a statement than a question.

Sakura nodded at him. She liked spending time with him here, even if meant sharing her spot. "I'd like that."


	11. Doubt

**Hey everyone. Sorry that this took a while. It took me a while to get into writing this. I must say, writing a highschool fic made me feel very old considering how I'm not in it anymore. Anyways, enjoy guys -insert standard disclaimer here-**

* * *

Sakura walked into the school, still happy about yesterday's events. She really thought that she was doing a good thing by getting Ino that date, which she knew the blond really wanted. Tenten had nearly fallen off her chair when Sakura told her about it, and then had demanded to know why the pinkette did such a thing.

In truth, the reason why was quite simple. First off, Ino had defended her when she fell and Sakura felt compelled to return the favour. There was no reason for Ino to have done what she did; the blonde had no way of benefiting from it. Yet, she helped the pinkette anyways. Sakura appreciated that. And, maybe a small part of her wanted Ino and Sasuke to get together so that Sasuke would stop hitting on her. It wouldn't bug her so much if she thought that he was being serious. After all, the guy was gorgeous. But it was obvious to her that all of his advances towards her were not made with sincerity.

And another good thing happened today. She had found her old necklace. It was just a pink flower on a long string, but it had been given to her a long time ago from an old friend.

She had originally been born here in Konoha, but had moved later. During the time she had lived here, she was really good friends with a boy. They had spent a lot of time together. Unfortunately they had to separate when she moved, but he gave her that necklace to remember him by.

That was a long time ago now and although she still had the necklace, ironically she had forgotten who he was and what his name was. The pinkette felt really bad about not being able to remember who he was, but a small part of her told that eventually, the two would meet again. For now, she would just have to be satisfied with wearing the necklace underneath her shirt.

"Sakura," a voice stopped her train of thought.

She looked over to see Shikamaru. This was weird. He never talked to her. At least, not after she left his group. What did he want? "Yes?"

"I heard about how you arranged for Sasuke and Ino to have a date together," he explained.

He did? "How did you hear about that?" Ino was probably bragging to the world about her date, so it wouldn't be hard for him to learn about that. But what did surprise was how he knew that she was the one to set it up.

The genius shrugged. "I knew that Ino wouldn't be able to get a date with him on her own. And she's been acting nicer lately towards you when you are brought up in discussion. She barely ever mocks you anymore, and even went so far as to defend you once. She's not the type that just changes the way they act about someone out of the blue, so I knew that you had to have done something to change how she talks about you. And you not denying it just confirms it for me."

No one in their right mind could ever call Shikamaru stupid. "What about it?"

"I want you to call it off," he told her.

Wait, what? He wants her to do what now? Why? "Huh?" Sakura asked surprise clearly evident on her face.

"Ino would never even consider it. And if I asked Sasuke to do it he would do through with it just to spite me. That leaves you to end it."

That did make sense. But it didn't really help her understanding at all. "Ok, but why exactly do you want to me to do stop it?"

The girl couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a hint of a blush on the boy's face. "Isn't it obvious that Ino will end up getting hurt at the end of this?"

She would? Sakura didn't think so. Sasuke wouldn't be that bad to go out with. He might be kind of annoying, but she couldn't see it being horrible. "I don't think so," she replied. "Besides, even if it does go badly, why do you care?"

Once again, she thought she saw a hint of a blush on his face. "That isn't important. What is important is that Ino is probably not going to like this experience."

He wasn't going to give up was he? "Okay Shikamaru," she gave in. "I'll talk to Ino, even though you aren't going to tell me why you want her to not go out with him so badly. However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to get Sasuke to call it off completely." Knowing that he'd likely try to argue with her more, she walked off, now set on finding Ino.

Wait, should she really do that? After all, the blonde was most likely with her friends right now. And Sakura was still rather low in the school's social ranking. Confronting Ino while she was in a group would only lead to Ino's friends questioning the blond and Sakura getting a list of insults and confused looks. So maybe the pinkette should avoid talking to Ino when she's with her friends. But when was she not with them? Answer, never.

Sakura inwardly sighed, how was she going to do this? What if she slipped a note into Ino's locker? Yeah, that sounded good. The pinkette stopped at a nearby table and opened the binder she was carrying. She then proceeded to rip out a sheet of paper and use a pencil that was in the binder to write a message telling Ino to meet her in the bathrooms by the science wing. There, that should suffice. Then the girl shut the binder and walked over to Ino's locker.

Was it strange that she knew exactly where Ino's locker is even though they didn't hang out? Sakura thought about this for a few moments, and then mentally shook her head. Ino was popular; lots of people knew where her locker was. With that thought she slipped the note into the blonde's locker and proceeded to go the place where she wanted her and Ino to meet.

She waited for fifteen minutes before Ino met up with her. Ino almost seemed annoying. "What's up forehead girl? And what's with this note? Are you ashamed to be seen with me or something?"

Sakura shook her head furiously. Ino had it backwards. "No, actually it's the other way around. I thought you wouldn't want to be seen with me."

Surprisingly, Ino actually looked offended by this. "Sakura! It makes no difference to me whether my friends are there or not. If I want to talk to you I will, regardless of who's around me."

Sakura gaped at her. Did she really just say that? The pinkette suddenly felt overjoyed. "Really?"

"Obviously," Ino retorted, placing her hands on her hips. "Now, what did you want to talk to me about?'

She had but forgot about that. "Oh right. Shikamaru went up to me this morning."

"And?"

"He said that he figured out that I was the one who set up your date with Sasuke. And then he told me that he wanted me to cancel your date."

"He did _what_?" Ino was seething. With her fists now clenched at her side, she hissed, "Why that little."

"He said that Sasuke would end up hurting your feelings," Sakura explained.

That did not seem to help Ino calm down. "Oh he thinks he knows everything! It annoys me so much."

"Do you know why Shikamaru asked about it?" Sakura asked, voicing her confusion.

Ino sighed and nodded. "Our parents are pretty close. He probably felt obligated or something." Then she grew angry again. "That still doesn't mean that he can step in and try to ruin my life!"

Recalling her suspicion of his blush, Sakura teased her, "Maybe he did it because he's jealous."

Ino froze at the suggestion for a few moments. Then immediately afterward she exclaimed, "No way, forehead! That's just stupid; don't even suggest something like that."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at her friend's reaction. Friend? She looked at Ino. Did she really just think of Ino as a friend? Well, they were above acquaintances at this point, and they didn't really hate each other anymore. A smile spread on her face. Yeah, she thought it was safe to say Ino a friend.

The bell to start school rang, halting their conversation. "Well, I'd better go to class now," Ino announced. Sakura nodded and the two parted ways. But before Sakura left, Ino called out to her. "Wait!" The pinkette turned and looked at her. "Thanks for letting me know."

Sakura smiled at her and left to go to her first class.

The remainder of the day was uneventful. However, as the day went on Sakura's thought kept returning to her conversation with Shikamaru and his suspicions about the date. What if he was right? What if Ino was going to walk out of this crying? At first she dismissed the notion. But the more she thought about it, the more truth she found in his words and the more fearful she became. What if Sasuke really was going to hurt her? She didn't act on those fears, but by the end of the day she was starting to become convinced that this date was a bad idea.

She decided to go her spot, well 'their spot', at the end of the day to think more about it.

Gaara was already there when she arrived. She sat down beside him and looked towards the sky. Maybe Shikamaru was right and she should have pulled the plug on the arrangement when she had the chance. But Ino would have hated her for it, she knew it. But is that better than Ino getting hurt?

Gah, this was really getting to her. Maybe she should voice out her thoughts. But to who? Well, Gaara was the closest one to her right now. Her eyes drifted over to him. Should she tell him? But she highly doubted he'd care about any of it. And didn't he and Sasuke hate each other or something? Perhaps it would be better to stay quiet about it. But not talking about it and thinking about it by herself was driving her crazy.

It couldn't hurt, could it? "Gaara," she started slowly. He didn't say anything, but turned his gaze towards her. Too late to turn back now. "Can I talk to you about something? But first," she quickly added, "please promise me to not tell anyone else about it."

He got a strange look on his face. A mix between shock and confusion. Until he finally spoke up. "I am not going make any promises about something I know nothing about."

A part of her was disappointed. But really, should she have expected anything else from him? She looked at him. Would he really tell anyone? Probably not. He wasn't really the gossiping type. But would he not judge her for what she did? Well, she was just going to have to take that chance. "Fair enough." She sighed and began her story. "I've become closer to Ino recently, and because of this, I arranged a date with her and Sasuke." At the mention of Sasuke's name, Gaara immediately darkened. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"Ino's obviously really excited about it," Sakura explained, deliberately avoiding his eyes. "And I thought it would be a good idea. But this morning Shikamaru came up to me and asked me to call it off because he thought Ino would get hurt. Knowing how much Ino was looking forward to it, I said no. But now, I'm starting to question if I did the right thing. I mean, if Ino gets hurt it's partially my fault, and I don't want Ino to feel bad from this."

Gaara was silent after that. At first Sakura didn't think he was going to respond, however she was proven wrong when he asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

Why was she telling him this? She wasn't completely sure herself. "I don't exactly know," she admitted, "but I think, I kind of trust you."


	12. Why, just why?

**Hey people. Just finished this up today. I must say, writing about high school is making me feel kind of old. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it :)**

* * *

Sakura looked at her phone when she thought no one was looking. Ino was finishing up her date with Sasuke now. The two had made an agreement the day before that since Sakura had set them up, Ino would meet with her afterwards to talk about it. Or rather, Ino had wanted an excuse to gush about the date to anyone who would listen and demanded that they talk about it.

She quickly tucked away her phone in her pocket. Trisha didn't care all that much about phones, as long as no one saw them. However, Trisha wasn't here today and it was a different supervisor, one who did care.

The pinkette had fifteen minutes left of her shift, just enough time to get the table full of sweaters she was standing at straightened out. Well, better get to it.

The time past by quickly and Sakura soon found herself walking out of the store.

They had agreed to meet a coffee shop that was located quite close to the mall. The pinkette was just leaving the mall when a blond bombarded into her.

She struggled to regain her footing and looked down to see that it was Ino. What the heck? She was about to ask the girl why she ran into her instead of walking like a normal person when she heard sobs coming from the girl. Ino was crying. "Ino?" she asked hesitantly. "What's wrong?"

Ino just balled into Sakura's shirt. "Date," Ino managed to croak out.

That bad? "Come on," Sakura tried to steady her. "Let's go to the coffee shop so you can sit down." Ino nodded and they left.

Soon they were sitting at the coffee shop, each with a low fat latte.

"So what happened?" Sakura asked before taking a sip of her drink.

"It was horrible!" Ino exclaimed. "Sasuke was a complete dick! First he shows up fifteen minutes late and offers no explanation as to why. Then I try to flirt with him, and he completely shoots me down. And not in a nice way; in a 'you're gross and that was pathetic' sort of way. He also flirted with the waitress in front of me. And to top it off, while we were eating at the end, I casually asked if there was a chance of us ever doing this again. I mean, I know he was being an ass, but I was hoping that it was because the date was set up. He looked and me and told me that he would never go on a date with me again, but told me that if I ever wanted to hook up one night, he'd be ok with that. I ran out after that."

"Oh Ino, that's horrible." Shikamaru had been right. She felt horrible now. At the time she truly thought that it would be a good idea. That backfired. "I'm sorry."

Ino shook her head. "It's not your fault." She shrugged. "In a way, I'm almost glad it happened. Now I know what I jerk he is."

Sakura had to stop herself from saying 'I could have told you that before this'. "So you're over him now right?"

Ino nodded. "I mean, I'm not going to start declaring to the world that I hate him or anything, but I doubt I'll be going after him anymore."

Sakura smiled. "That's good."

"Yep," Ino agreed. "Now, with that over with let's move onto something else. Say," the blond suddenly grinned, "your love life."

Sakura fought the urge to groan. Nothing romantic was going on right now with her. "Non-existent," she informed the blond.

"Oh come on," Ino insisted, "There must be something. What about with that guy you hang out with? What's his name?"

"Daichi?"

"Yeah, him!" Ino exclaimed. "He's really cute. And you're the cutest person he hangs out with, so you two must feel something for each other."

Sakura shook her head. "No. Besides, I think Leyna has a thing for him."

"Who?"

"A girl I'm friends with. I think she's in one of your classes. She's thin, pale blond hair, kind of shy."

Ino shook her head. "Don't know." Her eyes narrowed. "Now don't change the subject. Is there anyone else that you think is cute?"

Once Sakura finally got Ino to believe that she wasn't secretly in love with anyone, the two decided to call it a night and head home. Sakura still hadn't touched her homework, and she had to prepare for her, ugh, tutoring session with Sasuke tomorrow.

Plus, she did want to go spend at least a little time at the spot tonight. She was going to the spot nearly every day now. Something about the spot helped her get rid of her stress and think about things going on in her life.

Having Gaara there was also a reason she enjoyed going to it.

She had to admit that when she first discovered him there she felt a little mad, like her space was being violated. But after venting to him about her worries for setting up the date, talking to him was becoming a common occurrence.

The girl wasn't just telling about everything bothering her, she also told him anything exciting that happened that day, or something she was looking forward to. Gaara never really got involved in the conversation. He never replied or asked a question. In fact there were times when he never uttered a work for their entire meeting. But he always gave her his attention and she got the feeling that he didn't mind her speaking to him like that.

Soon she arrived at the spot and, not surprisingly, Gaara was already there. "Hey," she told him as she plopped down beside him. He looked at her and nodded.

She stretched out her legs and leaned back on her arms. Her gaze was directed in front of them as she began to talk, "So the date was today." And what a horrible date it was. The girl found herself looking down as she continued, "It didn't go very well.

"To put it simply, Sasuke was a dick to Ino. I know that's probably not a surprise to you, but I was hoping that he would act at least somewhat decently." She sighed. "I feel really guilty about it. I mean, I know that I wasn't the actual person causing Ino misery, but I was the one who set the date up. So it is partially my fault. Ino assured me that it was fine, but I still feel really bad about it."

Not surprisingly, Gaara was silent when she finished. She looked back up. "Ino seemed ok, at least after we talked about it, but I know that it will be a while before she's finally over it."

She glanced over at the redhead, who just had a blank stare on his face. Was she boring him? She guessed that hearing her rant about a date wasn't that exciting. Usually when she talked to him the topics were a little more interesting. At least, she hoped they were. The date was important to her, but she highly doubted that he cared one ounce.

"I'm sorry," she started, "Is this boring to you? Because I can stop talking about it if you want."

He blinked. "You're right, I really don't care." She was about to apologize again, but he cut her off. "But if I wanted you to stop talking about it, I would have told you."

Oh. "Ok," she replied, not quite sure how to respond. So he didn't care about it, but apparently it didn't bug him too much or he would have mentioned it. Fair enough.

* * *

Sakura stood by the door, trying to mentally prepare herself for her next encounter. It was now Tuesday, and she was about to tutor Sasuke. She was getting angry just thinking about it. But she should try to control herself. After all, he technically fulfilled his side of the deal, even if he acted like a total douchebag doing it.

Alright, she needed to control herself. Getting angry wouldn't help anything now. Ok, breathe. Now, get this over with. She walked into the room.

Sasuke was already there when she entered. Just looking at him reignited her rage and before she could stop and think about it, she called out, "What the fuck was that?"

He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to explain.

Since he clearly wasn't going to speak, she continued, "You acted like a total asshole. Ino was crying after it."

His voice was smooth. "It wasn't part of our deal for me to nice."

"That doesn't mean that you had to be a dick!"

He didn't even flinch. "I had not specifically wanted to go on a date with her, so why would I act like it?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but he stopped her. "Would you rather me lie to her and pretend that I'm interested and turn her down at school when she asks me out again?"

She was about to retort to say yes, she did, but stopped herself. She knew that might have turned out worse. He smirked when he saw that she agreed with him. "But still," she added. "You could have just let her down nicely."

The smirk grew. "I'm not a nice person."

"Really?" She replied sarcastically. "I never knew that. In fact, when I was walking here, I was thinking to myself 'oh I'm so looking forward to tutoring Sasuke, he's such a nice person'."

"You still want to tutor me?" He asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"Well ya," she stated, staring at him with her head tilted to the side. "I agreed to it didn't it?"

"But I turned down your friend," he insisted.

What was he getting at? "Do you not want me to tutor you?"

He shook his head. "I still want you to."

"Well then, I will," Sakura insisted, walking towards him. When she got to the table he was sitting at she sat down on a chair beside him. "Anything else you'd like to discuss before we start?" He shook his head again. "Alright," she said as she took out a book from her bag. "Let's begin."


	13. Abandonment

"After you left I went back home," Ino told her as they walked out of the mall. "And you know how Shikamaru and I are neighbours?"

Sakura shook her head.

"Oh, well we are. We live like, right next to each other," Ino said. "I pulled into my driveway and just as I was getting out I saw him lying there on the grass. I freaked out because I still looked like crap with my red eyes and mascara running down my face from crying before and I didn't want him to see me looking like that. But he had seen my car so I couldn't back up and drive away so I just tried to turn away from him as much as possible. And of course when I did that I ended up dropping my purse and my stuff spilled out of it.

"Shikamaru came to help me as I picked it up and he saw that I had been crying before. I had expected him to say something like _I told you so_ or _you're troublesome, why did you do that_, but he was actually really nice and asked me if I was alright. I ended up balling all over again but he actually comforted me. It was nice," Ino explained.

"So," Sakura started, wanting to give Ino a taste of her medicine. "Are you two going to start dating now?"

"What?" Ino blushed. "No."

"Are you sure?" The rosette asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Yes!" Ino exclaimed. "It was just nice and surprising. That's it!"

Sakura laughed and the blond glared at her. Unknown to them, someone else was watching their interaction.

One day later

"Sakura," The pinkette looked over at Nami. The lunch bell had just rung moments ago and Sakura had been in the process of walking out to her car. She had finally made enough from her job to buy her own vehicle.

"Yeah?" Sakura asked. What would girl ask about that couldn't wait until they were at the food court?

"I need to talk to you, now," Nami stated, almost glaring at her as she did so.

"Umm, ok," Sakura replied, wondering why Nami seemed so mad at her.

Nami half dragged her to the girl's bathroom and shut the door behind them. The girl then proceeded to check to make sure no one else was in the room before turning to Sakura and saying, "I saw you with Ino yesterday."

"Yeah, what about it?" The pinkette asked, not sure why Nami was upset.

She looked exasperated. "You act like you're friends with hair."

"I am," Sakura stated, still very much confused.

Nami looked even angrier. "Sakura, you can't be friends with her!"

"What?" Was Nami smocking crack or something?

"You said when you joined us that you wouldn't ditch us!" Nami explained. "Were you lying to us? To me?"

"No, I wasn't lying," Sakura stated, starting to see where Nami was coming from. "I can be friends with you guys and Ino at the same time, Nami."

"No, you can't," Nami exclaimed. "First you'll be friends with both of us. Then you'll be friends with even more of her friends and hang out with them more and more, until Ino will demand that you leave us. Then you'll ditch us all together for your 'popular friends' and never talk to us again."

Sakura wasn't sure, but she thought that when Nami got to the last sentence she sounded scared, and possibly even hurt. "That won't happen."

"It's already started!" Nami claimed. "Where were you at our last two movie trips? Or Daichi's birthday? You're leaving us." Without giving Sakura a chance to respond, Nami stormed out of the bathroom.

Sakura didn't move, just stared at the door. What Nami accused her of had been true, she had missed those events. She had been working for one of the movie nights, but didn't have an excuse for the other two. The pinkette was hanging out with Ino for those. During the second movie night they had stayed at the mall after their shift to do some shoe shopping, which had turned into them having a sleepover at Ino's house. During Daichi's birthday, she had been planning to go to his party, but Ino was feeling bad about the rebound she had just done in 'an attempt to prove that she was a hundred percent over Sasuke'. Sakura had felt obliged to stay with her.

Was she really moving away from the group? Would her continuing to be friends with Ino really end her friendship with them? That Nami's initial suspicions were correct and she was just temporarily using them? She didn't think she was, but she was missing 'group' events for Ino. Sakura didn't think that Ino would ever make her chose, but what if she did? Who would she choose?

These thoughts stayed with her for the remainder of the school day, even as she walked to her locker. She didn't want to choose either side, she wanted to be friends with both.

"Someone looks sad," Sakura looked up to see Daichi staring at her.

She forced herself to give a half grin. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yep," he leaned on the locker beside hers. "What's up?"

Might as well tell him. "Do you think I'm ditching the group?" She asked him.

His brows shot up. "What?"

She explained what Nami had told her at lunch. When she was done she repeated the question.

He shook his head. "I don't think you're ditching us."

"Really?"

"Yep, I mean it's not like our movie nights are these holy events that you have to go to. I miss some of them sometimes." He explained. "I also have friends outside of our group and hang out with them. I don't think you're ditching us, or that you have to choose between us. As long as you make an effort to spend time with both, you can be friends with both.

"I think Nami's just being paranoid," he finished.

Sakura was feeling a lot better now. "Thank you." There was still one thing she wasn't sure of. "But why do you think Nami's feeling like that?"

He frowned, as if he didn't want to talk about it. "Let's just say that she values you more than she lets on."

Huh? "What?" She asked.

"Sorry Sakura, I uh, have to go to practice," he turned and walked away.

She frowned at him. There was more she wanted to ask him about. Why did Nami 'value her' so much? There was also something that she felt she was forgetting…Oh! She yelled out to him, "Sorry I missed your birthday."

"It's ok," he yelled back, not stopping his retreat.

* * *

**Hey everyone. Long time no see. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.  
**


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